Eremitic reform at fifteenth-century Montserrat, 1472-1497

Table of contents :
Comm Version Front Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 1
Comm Version Contents Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 5
Comm Version Intro Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 13
Comm Version Chapter 1 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 43
Comm Version Chapter 2 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 86
Comm Version Chapter 3 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 117
Comm Version Chapter 4 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 145
Comm Version Chapter 5 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 185
Comm Version Chapter 6 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 206
Comm Version Chapter 7 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 258
Comm Version Conclusion Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 303
Comm Version App 1 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 313
Comm Version App 2 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 318
Comm Version App 3 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 319
Comm Version App 4 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 320
Comm Version App 5 Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 330
Comm Version Biblio Copyedited 11.19.09......Page 331

Citation preview

---

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

EREMITIC REFORM AT FIFTEENTH-CENTURY MONTSERRAT, 1472-1497

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

BY DANIEL K. GULLO

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2009

UMI Number: 3386992

All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

UMI 3386992 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346

Copyright © 2009 Daniel K. Gullo All Rights Reserved.

TO MY MOTHER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS..........................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 Chapter ONE.

TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS AT THE HERMITAGE OF......................31 MONTSERRAT

TWO.

CARDINAL-ABBOT GIULIANO DELLA ROVERE AND THE...……….74 REFORM OF THE HERMITS OF MONTSERRAT, 1472-1483

THREE.

FERNANDO II DE ARAGÓN, BERNAT BOYL AND THE………….....105 REFORM OF THE HERMITS OF MONTSERRAT, 1479-1484

FOUR.

TRANSLATING REFORM: BERNAT BOYL AND ISAAC…………….133 OF NINEVEH’S DE RELIGIONE

FIVE.

FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO THE CHURCH: BERNAT BOYL’S…..…173 FRIENDS AND THE 1489 EDITION OF ISAAC OF NINEVEH’S DE RELIGIONE

SIX.

THE CONGREGATION OF SAN BENITO DE VALLADOLID AND.....194 THE REFORM OF THE HERMITS OF MONTSERRAT, 1493-1497

SEVEN.

ISAAC OF NINEVEH’S DE ORDINACIONE ANIME AND THE……….246 REFORM OF THE CONGREGATION OF SAN BENITO DE VALLADOLID AT MONTSERRAT

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………291 APPENDICES ONE. TWO.

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION OF MADRID, BIBLIOTECA ……….….301 DEL PALACIO REAL, MS II/795 CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION OF IOHANN HURUS’ 1489 ………...…306 EDITION OF THE DE RELIGIONE iv

THREE.

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION OF DIEGO DE GUMIEL’S ………….…307 1497 EDITION OF THE DE ORDINACIONE ANIME

FOUR.

BERNAT BOYL’S LETTER TO ARCHPRIEST PEDRO ZAPATA….…308

FIVE.

DEPARTURES AND PROFESSIONS OF THE HERMITS.………...…...318 OF MONTSERRAT, 1484-1497

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………..………………………..………....319

v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IV.1.

Working Stemma of the Catalan Group of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione....147

VII.1.

Exercititia utilissima pro horis solvendis, fol. 8v.............................................254

VII.2.

Exercititia utilissima pro horis solvendis, fol. 7r..............................................255

VII.3.

De ordinacione anime, fol. 2r...........................................................................261

VII.4.

Exercitatorio, fol. 7r.; Exercitatorium fol. 3r...................................................263

VII.5.

Exercitia utilissima, fol. 77r.; Exercitatorio, fol. 75v..…………………............264

VII.6.

De ordinacione anime, fol. 1v. Crucifixion Scene...........................................266

VII.7.

De ordinacione anime, fol. 1v. Crucifixion Scene...........................................267

VII.8.

Indulgences for the Confraternity of Montserrat..............................................273

VII.9.

De instructione novitiorum, fol. 20v.; Meditationes vitae christi, fol. 159v....275 Horae, fol. 88v.; Exercitatorio, fol. 1r.

VII.10.

Exercitatorio, fol. 1v.; Exercitatorio, fol. 159v................................................276

VII.11.

De instructione novitiorum, fol. 1r...................................................................277

VII.12.

De ordinacione anime, fol. 66r.........................................................................279

VII.13.

De perfectione contemplationis, fol. 90r...........................................................288

APPX.5.14.

Departures and Professions of the Hermits of Montserrat, 1484-1499………318

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was completed with the generous funding given to me over the years by several institutions. I wish to acknowledge the following grants: The University of Chicago CLAS and Kundstader Research Grants, The Erasmus Institute, The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library Heckman Grant, The Huntington Library Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellowship, The Newberry Library Spencer Foundation Fellowship, and the François Furet Travel Grant. The work presented here depended on the labor of archivists and librarians who have spent generations preserving and cataloguing medieval manuscripts and incunabula. In my research, I have benefited from their wisdom and good cheer during the course of my writing. In the United States, I wish to thank the librarians at the Huntington Library, the Hispanic Society of America, The Lilly Library, and the Library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I wish to give special thanks to the librarians at the University of Chicago, the librarians and curators at the Newberry Library and the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library. My years spent at these institutions has left me with images of the Middle Ages found in their collections that I will carry with me in my studies forever. My dissertation in large part depends on the massive archival work and preservation being done in Spain and Catalunya. Yet, it was the friendship extended to me by the local scholars and librarians who made this dissertation possible through their suggestions and snippets of manuscript fragments found in their collections. I want thank the Archivo Municipal vii

de Burgos, the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, the Arxiu Municpal de Girona, the Archivo Histórico Nacional, the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de La Historia, the Biblioteca Nacional, the Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de el Escorial, Biblioteca de San Millán de la Cogolla, and the Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid. In particular, I wish to single out the librarians at the Biblioteca del Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos and Biblioteca de Santa Maria de Valvanera for not only providing me access to their collections, but also giving me hospitality in their monasteries. Most of all, I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to the librarians at the Biblioteca de la Universitat de Barcelona and the Biblioteca de Catalunya, who let me stay after hours at times to complete those last few notes from the books I studied. I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to my teachers and mentors over the years. In memoriam, I wish to acknowledge my debt to Mr. Spencer of Weber High School, Professor Brian Dutton of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Dr. Gregory Sebastian of St. John’s University. Dr. Theresa Vann and Dr. Mark Meyerson were both instrumental in providing me with the background needed to follow my interest in medieval Spanish history. Dr. Paul Gehl of the Newberry Library gave me counsel during the difficult times of the dissertation in addition to giving me a personal introduction to the study of the early printed book. Dr. Gehl’s efforts in helping me become a bibliographer as much as a historian resonates throughout these pages. Large sections of this dissertation were written over coffee with Dr. Lucy Pick of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Dr. Pick’s generosity included single handedly teaching me paleography and codicology in addition to the fine art of dinner conversation. Many caminos were walked in those conversations. Thank you all for opening the doors as much as pushing me through them when needed. viii

I have been fortunate to have had the guidance of Dr. Columba Stewart of St. John’s School of Theology. In two years at St. John’s, Dr. Stewart opened my eyes to a world of men and women living a life dedicated to God and to the cultivation of the human spirit. The sections on medieval monasticism, particularly anchoritic life, derive in large part from the courses and conversations shared with me over the years. Dr. Stewart introduced me to the study of the desert, the fruit of which are the hermits in these pages. The friends who have undertaken this pilgrimage with me over the years have carried many burdens. Thanks to Darryl Heller, Susan Karr, Carolyn Purnell, Gamble Madsen, Arnika Fuhrman, Fabio Grego, and Michael Robertson for the time spent conversing about everything and nothing over fine food and fine wine on a graduate student’s budget. I wish to offer personal thanks to Elianna Marziani for her help during the middle years of the dissertation. There is a point when every dissertation succeeds or fails simply through the exercise of the will. I owe Elianna for reminding me that the will is not that important, but that other things in the human being are much older and wiser than us, and it is there that we should look for our strength. Robert Friedman deserves my sincerest thanks for three years of counseling as a friend and mentor, without whom I would not have finished my dissertation. I owe the courage to complete and confront the fears of writing to the generous time spent discussing the virtues of Bob Dylan and drinking coffee above 53rd street. My work and love for Spain resides first and foremost in the people and friends I have met in the country over the last two decades. My three friends and pilgrims, Estrella Monedero Alvarez, Daniel Sánchez, and Rocio Mouzo Blanco gave me friendship, hospitality, love and lessons of life over many dinners. Every section at one point or another was written while sharing their tables and their company, and for this much of the dissertation is dedicated to them ix

for literally walking the camino of life across Spain with me. To these, I wish to add Elizabeth Nordmeyer, who came into my life at the end of the process, but in many ways completed it. Her support and kindness in the last year of writing helped bring the dissertation to a close and open a new life to begin. I owe my committee members a great debt of gratitude for the time and patience they took in helping me complete the dissertation. Professor Herzog of Stanford University provided me the opportunity to study the history of small social networks in my early years at Chicago. This method of analysis guided my study of friendship networks as a social history. I wish to express my sincerest thanks for her willingness to continue serving on my committee after leaving for Stanford University. I also wish to thank Dr. Frederick De Armas for being my outside reader and offering me the opportunity to benefit from his conversations.

His

encouragement to finish over the last two years helped produce the sections on literature and language, which I had thought to abandon. I owe Dr. Jonathan Lyon my sincerest thanks for agreeing to read my dissertation late in the process.

Our conversations on interpersonal

relationships and social history helped bring the dissertation to its full circle by bringing royal and church politics out of the shadows and into the heart of the study. I wish to offer my greatest thanks to Professor Rachel Fulton for serving as my mentor, dissertation advisor, and supporter throughout my years at the University of Chicago. One can never provide the proper thanks to a dissertation director who devotes a decade of her support to the writing of a dissertation.

For this reason, I owe Dr. Fulton for much more than the

knowledge of medieval history and skills of teaching she generously shared with me. My gratitude derives from her singular gift of allowing me to see through her work how imagination is the essential tool for understanding the past, for seeing a world beyond the letter on the page, x

and for realizing that the joy of scholarship is based on the joy one has in life. There is no doubt that this dissertation would have failed without these lessons, which have now become the basis of my own teaching and scholarship. These are rare gifts that one simply cannot repay; gifts that are recognized only at the end when the task has been completed. Thank you. Finally, my dissertation is dedicated to my mother Christine A. Gullo. No person over the years has given more support and time to the completion of my studies. At each stage in the process, my mom offered constant support, from times sitting in the hospital, to moving from apartment to apartment, to the packages sent in the mail to Chicago during the depths winter. My mom is a reader, and looking back on it now, the whole process of becoming an historian began as a child talking with her about what a book says and why it is important. It is a relationship that I still share with her today and it is a relationship that remains the foundation of each day I spend studying the past in order to write a story to share with others in the future. This dissertation, in the end, is much more hers than it is mine.

xi

INTRODUCTION

In 1522, Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the Jesuits, stood on the summit of the Mountain of Montserrat.

He had ascended the lonely Catalan peak to discern the

direction of his religious life after questioning his vocation as a soldier. Here he contemplated the vast space of the valley spreading across the landscape some 1236 meters below. Within this valley, the River Llobregat twisted around the base of the mountain, a reminder of Gregory the Great’s “river of contemplation”, where quiet banks in receptive valleys diverted one’s mind towards God.1 Around Ignatius rose a hundred peaks pointing towards the heavens, while their calciferous edges simultaneously warned him of the dangers of such an ascent. Halfway up the mountain, he saw the Monastery of Santa Maria with its black Virgin and stream of pilgrims. The mountain, though solitary and alone, existed for Ignatius as a physical exemplar of the Divine Order: Incarnation, church, and the desire for the absent God manifest in the natural world. Yet Ignatius did not arrive at Montserrat only to rest in solitude among the crags and niches of the summit.

He arrived, like others before him, to witness the disciplined,

contemplative life practiced by the twelve venerable hermits living on the mountain. These hermits, famous for their asceticism, embodied the natural Christian order of the mountain through their constant exercises of prayer, solitude, and a life of peace among a community of

1

Gregory I, S. Gregorii magni moralia in Job, edited by Marci Adriaen, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 143-143A (Turnholt: Brepols, 1979), bk. 1: 2.

1

Christians living in emulation of the early apostles. However, this peaceful setting did not always exist among the quiet, lonely crags. Some fifty years before Ignatius’s arrival, the hermits struggled with the conflicts of reform at the end of the fifteenth century. Neither solitary nor peaceful as Ignatius later encountered them, the small group of hermits defended their rights and traditions against the king when the newly crowned King Fernando II de Aragón (14521516) decided to reform Montserrat.

Reform and Montserrat at the End of the Fifteenth Century Monasticism was in a state of decline in the Principality of Catalunya as a result of two successive wars during the reign of King Juan II de Aragón (1398-1479). The first was the succession dispute between Juan II and his son Carlos, príncipe de Viana (1421-1461), which occurred between 1460 and1461; the second war, the war of the Remenses (1462-1472), pitted the peasants and the monarchy against the Catalan ruling class. The Remenses, though catastrophic for the entire principality, proved especially disastrous for Montserrat, as the peasants assaulted the monastery and its lands on account of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer’s (abbot, 1450-1471) alliance with the rebellious Catalan nobility. At the end of the war, the monastery and hermitage were depopulated, devoid of leadership, economically ruined, and without a semblance of a proper devotional life.2 The poor condition of the monastery and hermitage after the war of the Remenses fostered a series of three reforms at Montserrat that would occupy its abbots and patrons through the end of the fifteenth century. These reforms were by no means one and the same; their 2

Gregorio Argaíz, La perla de Cataluña (Madrid: Andrés García, 1677), 92; García M. Colombás, Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, abad de Montserrat, Studia et documenta 5 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955), 62.

2

differences reflected the volatile, muddled state of ecclesiastical and secular politics in medieval Catalunya. The first of three reforms began under the Cardinal-Abbot Giuliano della Rovere (1443-1513), who was elected abbot in commendam in 1472. The latter two reforms occurred during the reign of Fernando II de Aragón, the first between 1481 and 1493 and the second between 1493 and 1501. As with most late medieval reforms, the cardinal and the monarchs restored Montserrat for both political and religious reasons. Both motivations affected the hermits as much as they did the monastic community and both saw their traditional practices by and large end in 1493 with the coming of the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid to Montserrat. For the hermits, the centuries’ old tradition of semi-independent life frequently conflicted with the different and evolving views of reform between 1472 and 1497. Rather than growing as a unified community under a reformed religious life, the disparate actions of the reformers prompted the hermits to resist some reforms to preserve their traditional way of life on the mountain. This study of the reforms of Montserrat begins with the largely ignored reform activities of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere between 1472 and 1483.3 Despite being politically appointed as commendam abbot by his uncle Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484), Cardinal della Rovere supported the postwar restoration of the community.4 He personally contributed to the reform by donating money to rebuild and construct new buildings, particularly the great cloister of the monastery.5 He also facilitated Juan II and Fernando II’s efforts to restore the financial situation at 3

Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): 8-9. 4

Lorenzo di Fonzo, Sisto IV: Carriera scolastica e integracioni biografiche (1414-1484) (Rome: Edizioni Miscellanea Francescana, 1987), 415-18. 5

Anselm M. Albareda, Història de Montserrat (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1931; reprint, Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1998), 64-65.

3

Montserrat, at least when it suited his interests. The cardinal, however, did more than begin the process of reestablishing financial stability. He supported his local vicar and procurators’ efforts to restore the quality of religious life among the hermits.6 As part of these reforms, Cardinal della Rovere approved a series of new constitutional rules that helped liberate the solitaries from the control of the monastery, which had increased slowly over the last few centuries at the expense of the hermits. These previously unstudied privileges granted the hermits the right to elect their own superior, known as the presidente de los ermitaños, from one of their own members on a yearly basis. This superior in turn had immediate oversight to correct his brothers when they committed transgressions.7 Overlooked by earlier historians, these constitutional changes became a stumbling block for the reforms initiated by Fernando II, as the hermits used their traditional privileges to resist the king’s reformers’ attempts to impose stricter forms of religious life and force the hermits to end their status as lay religious to become fully cloistered monks prior to ascending the mountain to live a life in solitude. Although first proposed by King Juan II, it was Fernando II who abandoned the reforms of Cardinal della Rovere in favor of the fifteenth-century reform movement known as Benedictine Observantinism.

Observantinism suited Fernando II’s political and religious

interests on several grounds.8 The movement by and large rejected commendam abbacies and

6

Benet Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, (1258-1485), edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 295-309. 7

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r. Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló noted these reforms, but he did not explore the ramifications of the changes. Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, “Els abats montserratins del segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati,” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 164-165 n. 43. 8

José García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia: La reforma de las órdenes religiosas en los siglos XV y

4

eliminated proprietary abbots appointed by the papacy against royal interests.

Instead,

Observantinism favored a congregational federation of monasteries that appointed local abbots and priors from monks within the order.9 Less frequently, Observantinism supported the appointment of an outside abbot (ironically often appointed in commendam) to initially enforce the reform with or without royal support.10 In either case, however, the king politically benefited from a centralized federation of monasteries under a single prior-general and council or an independent abbot supporting the reform favored by the king. Fernando II adopted both systems at Montserrat to support his policies, first with his preferred appointment of his lieutenant Bernat Boyl over the hermits in 1481 and Joan de Peralta over the monastery in 1483, and later with his reluctant but necessary subjugation of both communities to the Castilian- Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid in 1493.11 In addition to these political concerns, Observantinism became Fernando II’s religious ideal for restoring the quality of monastic life in the Aragonese kingdoms.12 Benedictine

XVI,” in Historia de la iglesia de España, edited by Ricardo García-Villoslada, 5 vols. (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1980), 3/1: 268-270; Idem, La reforma de los religiosos españoles en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos (Valladolid: Instituto Isabel la Católica, 1969), 36; Luis Suárez Fernández, “El máximo religioso,” in Fernando II de Aragón, El Rey Católico, edited by Esteban Sarasa (Zaragoza: Institución «Fernando el Católico», 1996), 55-56; Tarsicio de Azcona, La elección y reforma del episcopado español en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos (Madrid: C.S.I.C. Instituto “P. Enrique Flórez,” 1960), 156-157. 9

Ildefonso Tassi, Ludovico Barbo (1381-1443) (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1952), 52 and 67; Gregorio Penco, Storia del monachesimo in Italia dalla origini all fine del Medio Evo, Tempi e Figure 31 (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1961), 335 and 343; David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), 60-61; Philibert Schmitz, Histoire de l’Ordre de Saint Benoît, 7 vols. (Maredsous: Éditions de l’Abbaye, 1942-1956), 3: 3-11. 10

Tassi, Ludovico Barbo, 37; Penco, Storia del monachesimo in Italia, 327 and 339-40; Barry Collet, Italian Benedictine Scholars and the Reformation: The Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 1-2. 11

Antonio de la Torre, “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): 447-450 and 464; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 9-11. 12

García Oro, La reforma de los religiosos españoles, 33-35; Idem, “Conventualismo y observancia,” 3/1:

5

Observantinism emphasized three fundamental practices: silence, enclosure (including living in the solitude of one’s cell in the monastery), and austerity, all of which were put in place to improve the quality of individual and common prayer in the monastery.13 The monks adopted an austere view the Rule of Saint Benedict as a correction against the perceived worldly behavior of Conventual monasticism that developed out of the Great Schism and endemic wars in the Spanish Kingdoms. In Castilla y León, the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid and the Cistercian Order became the principal promoters of Benedictine Observantinism.

In the

Aragonese kingdoms, the Benedictine reformers were led by the Cistercian Order, but also took advantage of the Italian Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua and Monte Cassino. Fernando II would cajole both the Italian and Castillian-Leonese congregations to provide models (not incorporation) for the community of Montserrat for nearly ten years, ultimately agreeing to the terms proposed by the Congregation of Valladolid to fully subjugate the abbey as a dependent priory within the congregation.14 This prolonged process dramatically affected the hermits and monastery. The hermits initially maintained their semi-independent form of religious life under the early reforms of Boyl and de Peralta. Then in 1493 the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid replaced this semi-independent lifestyle with their complete incorporation into the monastic community. In both cases, however, scholars have failed to recognize hermits’ effort to maintain their constitutional and religious independence as a principal reason for their resistance

271-272; Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación de San Benito de Valladolid, 6 vols., Studia silensia (Burgos: Aldecoa, 1973-1987), 1: 178-179; Tarsicio de Azcona, Isabel la Católica: estudio crítico de su vida y su reinado, 3rd ed., Biblioteca de autores cristianos 237 (Madrid: Biblioteca de autores cristianos, 1993), 731732; Luis Suárez Fernández, “El máximo religioso,” in Fernando II de Aragón, El Rey Católico, edited by Esteban Sarasa (Zaragoza: Institución «Fernando el Católico», 1996), 55-56. 13

Penco, Storia del monachismo in Italia, 349.

14

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 43.

6

to Fernando II’s reforms. The union of monastic constitutions with Observantine devotional life stood at the heart of Fernando II’s reforms and policies. During the early reforms under Boyl and de Peralta, the emphasis fell on Observantine asceticism and prayer, blended with the ceremonial practices outlined in the old Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza. With San Benito de Valladolid, reform began with constitutional changes that fully incorporated the monks and hermits within the uniform constitutions of the congregation followed by devotional efforts to support their customs. Scholars have recognized that the latter congregational system proved more radical for the hermits than those of Boyl based on their corporate, uniform view of religious life.15 This view, although correct, has not been fully understood within the more severe resistance put forward by the hermits against the congregation in 1493, given their traditional semi-independence from the monastery and their rejection of Observantinism. The Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid could not allow any form of independence between the hermitage and the congregation.

In principal, congregational Observantinism

adopted three basic constitutional provisions to ensure their austere vision of the Rule would be followed in their monasteries: (1) uniformity in customs and ceremonials throughout their congregation; (2) unanimity (at least theoretically) in setting the constitutional and ceremonial norms at annual chapters attended by representatives from the member monasteries; and (3) a system of itinerant visitors who moved from monastery to monastery, examining the proper form 15

Albareda, Història de Montserrat, 438-439; Colombás, Un reformador benediction, 126. Idem, “La santa montaña de Montserrat,” in España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos, Analecta legerensia 1 (Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970), 171; Cipriano Baraut, ed., García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 1: 171 (hereafter cited as Obras completas); Bernabé Dalmau, “Les relations entre les moines et les ermites de Montserrat de 1300 à 1500,” Studia monastica 14/1 (1972): 135; Bonifacio Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños de Montserrat,” Revista montserratina 5 (1911): 435.

7

of life and doling out corrections, punishments, and reforms for lapsed communities.16 Their onstant vigilance and correction suited Fernando II’s ambition to cast himself as the protector of the church and Catholic purity, so much so that Observance, unity, and uniformity would be the constant refrain of the king’s reforms.18 The hermits fell under this inflexible view of reform. Not only would they have to submit to the congregational system of uniformity, they would also lose their lay status as secular hermits outside of the full jurisdiction of the monastery. Finally, Fernando II and his wife Isabel I saw their reform as a continuation of their family’s patronage of Observantine Benedictine monasticism in the Spanish Kingdoms. Fernando II’s great-grandfather, King Juan I de Trastámara of Castilla y León (1358-1390), founded the first Benedictine Observantine community at San Benito de Valladolid in 1390.19 His foundation was based on the customary medieval desire to establish a religious community dedicated entirely to prayer for his and his family’s salvation. The king’s successors, however, turned the family foundation into a center for reform in Castilla y León, encouraging San Benito’s desire to incorporate select monasteries into a reformed congregation.20

The

Trastámaras continued this tradition in the Aragonese Kingdoms after the dynasty gained control

16

Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius, 60-61; Schmitz, Histoire de l’Ordre de Saint Benoît, 3: 3-11.

18

Adeline Rucquoi, “La Réforme monastique en Castille au XVe siècle: une affaire sociale,” in Horizons marins itenéraires sprituels (Ve - XVIIIe), edited by Henri Dubois, Jean-Claude Hocquet and André Vaudez, 2 vols., Histoire ancienne et médiévale 20 (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1987), 250-251; John Edwards, Ferdinand and Isabella (London: Pearson-Longman, 2005), 93-94. 19

García M. Colombás and Mateo M. Gost, Estudios sobre el primer siglo de San Benito de Valladolid, Scripta et documenta 3 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1954), 19-22. 20

Colombás and Gost, Estudios sobre el primer siglo, 43.

8

over the realm with the election of Fernando de Antequera (1380-1416) as king in 1412. This time, however, the monarchy worked with an internal Observantine movement led by Abbot Bernat de Torroella (abbot, 1428/1431-1460), who introduced the Italian Observantine customs of Monte Cassino at the monastery of Sant Felíu de Guixols in 1435.21

Fernando II’s aunt,

Queen María de Aragón (1401-1458), placed Sant Felíu under royal protection in 1440 and subsequently facilitated the short-lived introduction of Observantinism at Montserrat between 1443 and 1450 under Abbot Antoni d’Avinyó i Moles (abbot, 1440-1450), while her husband Alfonso V (1396-1458) provided donations of silver to the monastery to receive prayers on his behalf as part of his will.22 Both Fernando II and Isabel I would draw on these traditions of intervention when encouraging the Castilian-Leonese and Italian congregations to accept the reform of Montserrat. In each instance, the Catholic Monarchs claimed the family’s traditional support for Observantine reform and their identification with the devotional life of the monks as part of their own personal and family salvation. Fernando II, like his father before him, justifiably saw Montserrat as the ideal place to realize his political and religious policy in the Principality of Catalunya.23 On the one hand, adopting Observantinism supported the king’s desire to not only remove Cardinal Giuliano della 21

Ernest Zaragoza i Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523),” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 334-335. 22

Zaragoza i Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña,” 339; Idem, Història de la Congregació Benedictina Claustral Tarraconense (1215-1835) (Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2004), 6364; Jaume Colell, “Vingueren a Montserrat monjos de Monte-Cassino a mitjans del segle XV?” Analecta montserratensia 1 (1917): 193-200; Anselm M. Albareda, “Monjos de Montecassino a Montserrat,” in Casinensia: miscellane di studi Cassinensi, publicati in occasione del XIV centenario della fondazione dell’abadia de Montecassino, 2 vols. (Montecassino: Typographia Casinensii, 1929), 2: 210-16; Cebrià Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda de monjos de Montecassino a Montserrat (1443-1455),” Studia monastica 18 (1975): 311-314; Alan Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous, King of Aragon, Naples and Sicily, 1396-1458 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 313 and 429. 23

Manuel J. Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil del segle XV: Instituciones, formes de govern i relacions socials i econòmiques (1472-1479), Biblioteca de cultura catalana 46 (Barcelona: Curiel, 1981), 186-193.

9

Rovere as a papal appointee, but also to hinder the election of an abbot from the Catalan nobility who would be antagonistic towards the monarchy. Observant solitaries (as much as the monks), on the other hand, would become spiritual bulwarks for the king’s secular and religious authority by virtue of the hermits’ strict emulation of the contemplative life of the apostles. This rigorous life held special importance for Fernando II, as hermits were traditionally associated with the most perfect form of Christian life within the church. He saw the hermits as models for other religious communities and the laity, and therefore part of the monarch’s call for a general reform of the Aragonese Church. Finally, his aunt and uncle’s previous support for Observantinism at Montserrat and his own personal devotion to the Virgin contributed to his decade-long effort to reform the community. This comprehensive royal policy promoted Fernando II’s continuation of the centralizing ambitions of the Trastámara dynasty by unifying the various kingdoms around one orthodox, vigilant, and uniform Catholic faith defended by the Catholic Monarchs.24 This basic history belies the problems that vexed Fernando and his agents once he decided to reform the community in 1479.

The hermits, though largely supportive of the

monarchy, still viewed the reforms as a fundamental threat to their religious traditions. The extent of the resistance has not been fully understood with regard to its significant impact on the overall reform program at Montserrat. As such, the previous examinations of the hermits during Fernando II’s reforms failed to uncover how their actions and the response to their complaints helped direct the reform of the entire monastery, rather than the monastery’s reforms directing those of the hermits. From both a constitutional and spiritual perspective, the problem remained that religious life was by no means easy to change, especially when practiced by a group of

24

Luis Suárez Fernández, Los Reyes Católicos (Barcelona: Ariel, 2004), 726.

10

solitaries operating on traditional constitutions that dated back to the emergence of the monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat in the eleventh century. Fernando II and his reformers would confront their resistance by resorting to the manipulation of the hermits’ 1476 constitutions to install Bernat Boyl as presidente de los hermitaños in 1481 and supporting the end of their old traditions when the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid gained control of the community in 1493. When looking at the devotional changes, however, the reforms took on the ideals of pastoral care as much as legal maneuvering and coercion. Historians have noted the king’s attempt to mollify certain constitutional changes by respecting the cultural traditions of the eremitic community. The role of pastoral care through religious literature, however, remains unstudied with regard to its use as a source for stability and peace during the reforms.

My

dissertation in part investigates how the reforms under Boyl, de Peralta, and later under García Jiménez de Cisneros, saw religious literature as a means to offset the concerns and anxieties caused by the introduction of new religious norms and devotional practices.

The use of

instructional texts accessible to all members of a community living according to common customs became a principal means to ease the religious life of the hermits undergoing the stress of reform.

Religious Literature and Observantine Reform in the Fifteenth Century My dissertation places the reform of Montserrat within the broader history of religious reform at the end of the Middle Ages. This period saw a general interest in restoring monastic life to its primitive ideal, based on the life of the apostles and practices of early monasticism. Restoring this original model rested in large part on the introduction of new customs and a 11

renewal of monastic education. Introducing these new customs did not always prove easy and the reformers often used education as a means to ameliorate their reforms. What we see at Montserrat therefore does not differ in essence from current ideas of religious reform. Montserrat’s reform provides another example of how late medieval reformers invested their interest in improving the religious life of their order through education and the introduction of new, austere ceremonials and customs into their religious communities. Of these late medieval reforms, the Franciscans have received the most thorough investigation thanks to Bert Roest’s magisterial study of pre-Tridentine Franciscan religious literature of instruction.

Roest argued that Observantine Franciscans used devotional and

instructional manuals to educate members of the order when they introduced new constitutions and devotional practices into traditional priories.25 In Spain, for example, Pedro de Villacreces (d. 1452) composed the Recollectio villacreciana (a handbook of Observantine devotional practices based on the Rule of Saint Francis) as a companion volume to the customs and ceremonials outlined in his Memoriale religionis.26 This companion volume did not immediately settle the conflict that erupted between the Conventual Franciscans and Villacreces’ Observantine reformers. For this reason, Pope Martin V (1417-1431) ordered Giovanni di Capistrano (1386-1456) and other members of the order to produce a new instructional text, the Constitutiones Martinae, in order to bring together the competing interpretations of the Rule of

25

Bert Roest, Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent, Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 117 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 152-154 and 222-226. 26

Roest, Franciscan Literature, 137-138. Nimmo likewise drew attention to this practice. Duncan Nimmo, Reform and Division in the Medieval Franciscan Order from Saint Francis to the Foundation of the Capuchins, Biliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina 33 (Rome: Capuchin Historical Institute, 1987), 501-502. For Villacrece’s texts, see Fidel de Lejarza and Angel Uribe, “Escritos villacrecianos,” Archivo Ibero-americano 17 (1957): 663-945.

12

Saint Francis.27

Martin V expected this common text to negotiate the conflict between

Observantine and Conventual Franciscans by setting a uniform way of life within the order, although in the end the treatise failed to resolve the discord between the two branches of the order. The Franciscans did not limit this reform method to male communities. Similar instances can be found in the reform of Franciscan sisters and tertiaries, where new religious instructional literature and constitutions standardized practices to eliminate discord arising from competing visions of the nature of female Franciscan life.28 The reform of women’s communities did not end with written texts; architectural settings like those of Sant’Anna di Foligno were developed to foster a sense of community around the performance of the liturgy during a time of reform.29 The Carthusians used similar methods to reform their order - though with less emphasis on Observantinism - reuniting the order after the internal and regional splits caused by the Great Schism.30 Like the Franciscans, the Carthusians used manuals to renew the order’s religious life under a common ceremonial and constitutional system. Oswald of Corda’s (d. 1443) Opus pacis, or the Work of Peace, functioned as more than a guide to the correction and emendation of

27

Roest, Franciscan Literature, 148; Nimmo, Reform and Division, 606-608; John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968; reprint 1998), 447-448. 28

Bert Roest, “A Textual Community in the Making: Collettine Authorship in the Fifteenth Century,” in Seeing and Knowing: Women Learning in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550, edited by Anneke Mulder-Bakker (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 163-180; Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1996), 400-401. 29

Dominique Rigaux, “The Franciscan Tertiaries at the Convent of Sant’Anna at Foligno,” Gesta 31/2 (1992): 92-98. 30

Michael Sargent, “The Problem of Uniformity in Carthusian Book-Production form the Opus pacis to the Tertia compilatio statutorum,” in New Science Out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Honor of A.I. Doyle, edited by Richard Beadle and A.J. Piper (London: Aldershot, 1995), 124.

13

manuscripts.31 As the title implies, the manual encouraged peace and unity among the monks, in this case through the dissemination of uniform liturgical books and constitutions based on a standardized method of copying manuscripts.32 According to Oswald of Corda, preparing common liturgical books to be used in each charterhouse increased the potential success of reform. Reform and religious education extended to more traditional devotional texts within the Carthusian Order. Nicholas Kempf (1415-1497), for example, equated inner peace (otium) and communal peace with personal security (securitas) and corporate stability (stabilitas) in many of his monastic treatises.33 Similarly, Johannes Rode (d. 1439) disseminated his Rosenkranz, a devotional exercise similar to the modern rosary, to reform the Carthusian Order and its affiliated Benedictine convents around a common devotional exercise.34 The Rosenkranz, which was later produced in as many as one thousand copies at the Charterhouse of Trier, followed the tradition of writing and copying religious texts for the purpose of reform, a tradition that dates back to the order’s founding in the eleventh century.35

31

Belinda Egan, ed., Oswaldi de corda Opus pacis (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001); Richard Rouse and Mary Rouse, “Correction and Emendation of Texts in the Fifteenth Century and the Autograph of the Opus pacis by ‘Oswaldus Anglicus’,” in Scire litteras. Forschungen zum mittelalterlichen Geistesleben, edited by S. Krämer and M. Bernhard (Munich: Abhandlungen der Bayerische Akademie der Wissenshaften (1988); reprinted in Idem, Authentic Witnesses, 427-447. 32

Egan, Oswaldi de Corda, 78-79.

33

Dennis Martin, Fifteenth-Century Carthusian Reform: The World of Nicholas Kempf (Leiden: E.J. Brill,

1992), 71. 34

The text was also attributed to the Carthusians Adolf of Essen (d. 1439) and Dominic of Prussia (d. 1460). Anne Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages (University Park, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 2. 35

Prior Guigo I (1083-1136) of the Grande Chartreuse wrote in the order’s constitution that “since we are not able to speak, we preach with our hands.” Quoted from Richard Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print: Aspects of the Manuscript Book in Northern Europe of the Fifteenth Century,” in Proceedings of the PMR Conference (Villanova, PA: Villanova University, 1985): 43.

14

The movement of the Devotio moderna, principally the Congregation of Windesheim and the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life, likewise used specifically designed religious manuals when introducing new constitutions into their communities. Like the Carthusians, the Modern Devotionalists could not separate devotion from the more mundane daily life of the community. As John Van Engen noted, “Customaries guided the communal life of the New Devout, exercises their individual religious lives. The distinction was not a rigid one, and many exercises read like customaries adjusted to individual usage.”36 To this end, the Modern Devotionalists crossreferenced the texts of their religious primers with their constitutions to create a coherent relationship between spiritual exercises and the routines of their daily life.37 Theo Klausmann described this process as a type of “Sozialisationsprogramm.”38 This program included the adoption of vernacular and Latin versions of the same work, while providing “reader friendly” books to ensure that the text reached as many women and men as possible. 39 According to Rouse, the Modern Devotionalists created an “apostolate of writing” modeled on Carthusian textual piety.40 As with other reform efforts, writing was elevated to a level of preaching, where preaching must be understood within the internal framework of the community

36

John Van Engen, tr., Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), 49-50. 37

Regnerus Richardus Post, The Modern Devotion Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism, Studies of Medieval and Reformation Thought 3 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968), 304-305. 38

“Auf antike und frühchristliche Wurzeln zurückgehend, entwickelten die Exercitia sich komplementär zu den Consuetudines und stellten eine unverzichtbare Ergänzung zu ihnen dar.” Theo Klausmann, Consuetudo consuetidine vincitur: Die Hausordnungen der Brüder vom gemeinsamen Leben im Bildungs- und Sozialisationprogramm der Devotio moderna, Tradition-Reform-Innovation Studien zur Modernität des Mittelaters 4 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003), 18. 39

Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 39; Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 44; Post, The Modern Devotion, 167 and 331; Brian Patrick McGuire, Jean Gerson and the Last Medieval Reformation (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005), 115-116. 40

Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 43.

15

as much as any external use that it might have for the church at large. Negotiating reform through the two-fold process of uniting religious primers and new constitutions found a particular home in the Benedictine reforms of Italy and Germany during the fifteenth century. Gregorio Penco rightly noted that the entire foundation of Benedictine reform during this period rested on a reciprocal, nonseparable commitment to correlate spiritual exercises with new constitutional norms.41 Italian Benedictine reformers, notably the Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua, adopted this two-fold approach throughout the fifteenth century. Abbot Ludovico Barbo (1381-1443), the founder of the Congregation of Santa Giustina, composed his Modus meditandi et orandi or Formula orationis et meditationis as a guide to how private mental prayer should be used in conjunction with the reformed Divine Office newly legislated in the ceremonials and constitutions of the congregation.42 Bernard Placentius (d. 1486), one of Barbo’s successors, wrote pedagogical treatises designed to train both novices and older members of a monastery. 43 To these writings we can add the works of the Camoldense Paolo Giustiniani (1476-1528), who wrote his Tractato di XII gradi di obedientia and De caritate servanda etiam cum inimicis libri V while preparing the reformed constitutions of the Hermitage of Camaldoli.44 Giustinani, hampered by traditionalists within his order,

41

Penco, Storia del monachismo in Italia, 339 and 348; Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 5:

161. 42

Penco, Storia del monachismo, 349; Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 258; Tassi, Ludovico Barbo, 99 and 101; Willibrord Witters, “Le rédaction primitive des déclarations et constitutions de la Congégration de Sainte Justine de Padoue (XVes.),” Studia monastica 7 (1965): 130 and 141-142. 43

Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 260; Collett, Italian Benedictine, 42; Jean Leclerq, “Monastic and Scholastic Theology in the Reformers of the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century,” in From Cloister to Classroom. Monastic and Scholastic Approaches to Truth, Cistercian Studies 90 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1986), 186. 44

Jean Leclercq, Un humaniste ermite: Le bienheureux Paul Giustiniani (1476-1528) (Rome: Edizioni Camaldoni, 1951), 77, 97 and 101.

16

recognized how religious primers enhanced communal peace, since they, more than the constitutions, provided an answer to questions regarding changes in the monastery’s daily life.45 Fifteenth-century Benedictine reformers in Germany and Austria prolifically produced religious primers to support their constitutional and religious reforms. Their prolific composition of instructional books proved indispensable for the Congregations of Bursfeld, Melk, and Kastl as they responded to the difficulties encountered when reforming the diverse communities within the Holy Roman Empire.46 Behrendt described these intensive efforts as nothing less than the establishment of a Pax benedictina, where living peacefully in common devotion became the indispensable requirement to complete any reform.47 Abbot Iohannes Trithemius of Sponheim (1462-1516) provided the most thorough union of religious primers and constitutional reform. Negative reactions to his reforms guided their composition.

He specifically wrote his Exhorationes ad monachos and De regimine

claustralium (also known as the Commentarius in sancti Benedicti regulam) to overcome resistance to the reformed constitutions of the Congregation of Bursfeld when he introduced the customs into the monastery of Sponheim.48 A third work, the Liber de triplice regione

45

Examples similar to Giustiniani can be found in the writings of Hieronymus Aliotti (1412-1480). Klaus Ganzer, “Monastiche Reform und Bildung. Ein Traktat des Hieronymus Aliotti (1412-1480) über die Studien der Mönche,” in Reformatio ecclesiae Beiträge zu kirchlichen Reformbemühungen von der Alten Kirche biz zur Neuzeit. Festgabe für Erwin Iserloh, edited by Remigius Bäumer (Munich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1980), 181-199; Leclerq, “Monastic and Scholastic Theology,” 185; Collett, Italian Benedictine Scholars, 40-41. For an expanded list of other Italian Benedictine writers, see Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 260-261 and Collett, Italian Benedictine Scholars, 28-76. 46

Roland Behrendt, “The Library of Abbot Trithemius,” American Benedictine Review 10 (1959): 80; David Howie, “Benedictine Monks, Manuscript Copying and the Renaissance: Johanes Trithemius’ De laude scriptorum,” Revue bénédictine 86/1 (1976): 132. 47

Behrendt, “The Library of Abbot Trithemius,” 78.

48

Klaus Ganzer, “Zur monastichen Theologie des Johannes Trithemius,” Historisches Jahrbuch 101 (1981): 387; Noel L. Brann, The Abbot Trithemius (1462-1516): The Renaissance of Monastic Humanism, Studies in the History of Christian Thought 24 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981), 122-123 and 134-135. For a general overview of

17

claustralium et spiritualium exercitio monachorum, became the congregation’s standard religious primer for both novices and reformed monks on account of his success as an instructor. By 1498, the congregation even ordered the printing of the Liber de triplice regione claustralium so that every novice and monk in the congregation could organize their devotional lives according to uniform religious principals outlined by Trithemius for the order.49 The Congregation of Melk differed little from the other locations of reform. Several monks composed commentaries on the Rule of Saint Benedict and other books of religious instruction as part of their Observantine reforms.50 Prior Bernard von Waging (1400-1472), an Augustinian who became a Benedictine at Tegernsee, composed nearly twenty works during his reforms, several of which, including his Epistola seu tractatus contra illicitum carniusm esum monachorum ordinis S. Benedicti and the Remediarius contra pusillanimes et scrupulosos, spoke directly to the monks’ concerns over constitutional changes.51 Benedictine abbots even petitioned works from outside the community to encourage monks to accept their reforms. While Bishop of Brixen, Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) composed his De visione dei for Abbot Kaspar Ayndorffer of Tegernsee, who had undertaken the reform of the monastery despite early, strident opposition from the community.52

the writings composed by the monks of Bursfeld during this period, see Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 268-273. 49

Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 272-273; Behrendt, “The Library of Abbot Trithemius,”

73 and 81. 50

Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 264-268.

51

Morimichi Watanabe, “Nicolaus Cusanus, Monastic Reform in the Tyrol and the De visione dei,” in Concord and Reform: Nicholas of Cusa and Legal and Political Thought in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Thomas M. Izbicki and Gerald Christianson (Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Variorum, 2001), 160. 52

Watanabe, “Nicolaus Cusanus, Monastic Reform,” 158 and 162; Idem, “Nicholas of Cusa and the Tyrolese Monasteries: Reform and Resistance,” in Concord and Reform: Nicholas of Cusa and Legal and Political Thought in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Thomas M. Izbicki and Gerald Christianson (Ashgate: Variorum, 2001),

18

These German Benedictine reformers did not exclude women’s communities from their reform program. On the one hand, François of Kastl (flourished c. 1405) composed his Libellus quaestionum regularium de vita sanctimonialium virginum as a response to a group of Benedictine sisters’ questions concerning the Observantine interpretation of the Rule of Saint Benedict. On the other hand, John Crean noted how anonymous translations of the Rule of Saint Benedict for German Benedictine nuns selectively chose vocabulary and interpolated texts to provide internal commentaries on the Rule.53 Even in England, Bishop Richard Fox translated the Rule of Saint Benedict to provide the Benedictine sisters of Winchester with an interpolated text designed to encourage reform, while asserting his authority over the community.54 As with other fifteenth-century reformers, Bernat Boyl and García Jiménez de Cisneros used religious writings to communicate their reform ideals and practices to the hermits of Montserrat. And, like the other reforms, their works sought to facilitate change and create concord within the community under their leadership. Although both reformers did not compose an original treatise to help reform the hermits prior to 1497 - Jiménez de Cisneros’s Ejercitatorio

133-153; Mark Führer, “The Consolation of Contemplation in Nicholas of Cusa’s De visione dei,” in Nicholas of Cusa on Christ and the Church: Essays in Memory of Chandler McCuskey Brooks for the American Cusanus Society, edited by Gerald Christianson and Thomas M. Izbicki (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), 22-24. 53

John E. Crean, Jr., “Obsculta o Fili / Hör o Tochter: Gender Modification in a 1505 Rule of St. Benedict,” Classical Folia 31 (1977): 153-162; Idem, “The Unique Language of the Altenburg Rule of St. Benedict,” Studies in Medieval Culture 12 (1977): 125-132; Idem, “Embellishment in Feminine Versions of the Rule of St. Benedict in Middle High German,” Cistercian Studies 16 (1981): 66-75; Idem, The Altenberg Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue: A Middle High German Version adapted for Nuns, 1505,” Vox benedictina 10/1 (1993): 151-156; Idem, “Voces Benedictinae: A Comparative Study of Three Manuscripts of the Rule of St. Benedict for Women,” Vox benedictina 10/1 (1993): 157-178. See also Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît, 6: 262. 54

Barry Collett, ed., Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England with an Edition of Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517, The Early Modern Englishwoman 1500-1750: Contemporary Editions (London: Ashgate, 2002), 53; Idem, “The Civil Servant and Monastic Reform: Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517,” in Monastic Studies: The Continuity of Tradition, edited by Judith Loades (Bangor, Wales: Headstart History, 1990), 197; Nancy B. Warren, Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 34.

19

dela vida spiritual did so in part when published in 1499 - their decision to use Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione functioned in the same manner as translations of the Rule of Saint Benedict. The choice of an established text was not unusual for the period, and indeed made sense given that neither Boyl nor Jiménez de Cisneros had any experience as hermits when they arrived at Montserrat. What becomes apparent, however, is the reformers’ decision to use Isaac of Nineveh as a vehicle to indirectly assert their own authority over the hermits via Isaac’s text. For Boyl, Isaac’s authority as an expert in the solitary life merged with his translator’s authority to become joint “authors” of the De religione. For Jiménez de Cisneros, his decision to print marginalia and add devotional images introduced his authority into the design and reading practices of the book alongside the original text.

The History of the Book and the History of Reform The relationship between literature of religious instruction, ceremonials, and constitutions provides a second approach to explore how Bernat Boyl and García Jiménez de Cisneros implemented reforms at the hermitage through pastoral care. Seeing this relationship in the physical structure of the book and not just in the text augments our appreciation of how these reformers used book culture to achieve change at Montserrat. Both reformers understood that the whole book, and not just the text, served as a practical source of religious education. Like other medieval reformers, Boyl and de Cisneros understood the book as a vehicle to convey the text, and they helped create a community around a new set of devotional principals and religious ways of life founded on the introduction of Observantinism into the community. Historians have recognized that medieval religious instructional literature presents complex problems of definition and methodology. There was no established style or form of a 20

religious primer. Rather these works included poetry, letters, treatises, constitutions, liturgical books (notably the breviary and books of hours), and biblical exegesis. The instructional books could also take the artistic forms of woodcuts and manuscript illumination, like those found in architecture and stained glass.56

The distinction between introductory devotional and

instructional handbooks is therefore a bit arbitrary.57 The listing of books of hours as liturgical manuals and literary compilations in modern catalogues belies this problem.58 Bernard McGinn, commenting on the emergence of women’s religious literature, acknowledged the difficulty and hesitations of ascribing to these works concrete terms such as a rule, courtly literature, hagiography, or mystical treatises.59 Indeed, the most famous monastic guide of the Middle Ages, the Rule of Saint Benedict, presented a mix of interrelated and inseparable devotional practices, constitutional norms, and ascetic precepts, which the author termed “a little rule for beginners” for those living the monastic life.60

56

Jeffrey Hamburger, “Art, Enclosure, and the Cura monialium: Prolegomena in the Guise of a Postscript,” Gesta 31 (1992): 108-109. See in particular the important collection of essays in Henk Van Hos, ed., The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994). 57

Robert N. Swanson, Religion and Devotion in Europe, c. 1215 – c. 1515 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 72. 58

Paul Saenger, “Books of Hours and the Reading Habits of the Later Middle Ages,” in The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, edited by Roger Chartier and translated by Lydia Cochrane (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), 140; Eamon Duffy, “Elite and Popular Religion: The Book of Hours and Lay Piety in the Later Middle Ages,” in Elite and Popular Religion: Papers Read at the 2004 Summer Meeting and the 2005 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, edited by Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory, Studies in Church History 42 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Published for the Ecclesiastical History Society by the Boydell Press, 2006), 142. 59

Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, 1250-1350, vol. 3, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroads Publishing Company, 1998), 168-70, 187-88, 223, 289, and 298-99. 60

Timothy Fry, ed., RB1980. The Rule of Saint Benedict (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1981), c. 73:

8.

21

One way scholars manage the complexity of religious instructional literature is a more comprehensive approach to the history of the book as an object and not simply as a repository for a text. Paul Saenger, for example, demonstrated how the format, readers’ marks, and codicology found in books of hours help us understand how medieval readers constructed their reading environment to foster their private devotions according to personal need and social context.61 Similarly, Anne Winston-Allen’s study of the origins of the rosary combined the analysis of the text of early rosary prayers, their dissemination in printed sheets or manuscripts, their use of woodcuts and illuminations, and the objects of rosary beads to show the relationship between late medieval reform and the developments of medieval prayer practices.62 Kathryn Rudy and Michael Camille’s investigations of text, image, and the format of the book demonstrated how illustrations within printed books acted as guides to mental or “virtual” pilgrimage as a penitential exercise often in relationship to the actual sites of pilgrimage.63 Julian Luxford’s study of Carthusian manuscripts is of particular interest.64 Her study of Gonville and Caius College MS. 142/192 revealed how the semi-eremitic Carthusians chose small-format books to institutionalize the importance of individual struggles against the temptations of the sin while living solitary lives in single cells, a level of individual devotion found at Montserrat during Boyl

61

Saenger, “Books of Hours,” 141; Duffy, “Elite and Popular Religion,” 145.

62

Anne Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). 63

Kathryn Rudy, “A Guide to Mental Pilgrimage: Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal Ms. 212,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 63/4 (2000): 494-515; Michael Camille, “Reading the Printed Image: Illuminations and Woodcuts of the Pelerinage de la vie humaine in the Fifteenth Century,” in Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, edited by Sandra Hindman (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), 259-291. 64

Julian Luxford, “A Carthusian Economy: Gonville and Caius College MS. 142/192,” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 12/4 (2003): 371.

22

and Jiménez de Cisneros’s reforms.65 As with other fifteenth-century reformers, Bernat Boyl and García Jiménez de Cisneros used religious primers to communicate the new practices and ideals of religious life to be lived by the hermits of Montserrat. Boyl and Jiménez de Cisneros understood that certain hermits would react negatively to the disruption in the traditional social and devotional structures that formed the basis of their community and identity as hermits. For this reason, the hermits of Montserrat required more than training; they required a nuanced method of religious education that took into consideration the anxiety, confusion, and resistance that resulted from destabilized patterns of daily life. The effects of such changes were particularly true for hermits who lived a rigorously structured ascetic life dedicated to fixed patterns of intensive mental prayer carried out in silence and solitude. The two-fold disruption of community organization and devotional practices that destabilized the eremitic community provided the rationale for adopting religious instructional literature as a means to implement the reform at Montserrat. Unfortunately, only one religious book of instruction outside of the hermits’ constitutions has survived: Isaac of Nineveh’s (d. circa 680) De religione, an early seventh-century introduction to the eremitic life. Scholars, however, have not studied the treatise either as a book or as a text within its social context despite the importance placed by Bernat Boyl on its translation in 1484 and printed version in 1489.

65

Later, García Jiménez de Cisneros also

Further studies of the interrelationship between context, devotion, and the format of the book can be found in Judith Oliver, “Worship of the Word: Some Gothic Nonnenbücher in their Devotional Context,” in Women and the Book: Assessing the Visual Evidence, edited by Jane H. M. Taylor and Lesley Smith, British Library Studies in Medieval Culture 2 (London: British Library, 1997), 106-122; Kathleen Kamerick, “Patronage and Devotion in the Prayer Book of Anne of Brittany, Newberry Library MS 83,” Manuscripta 39/1 (1995): 40-50; Margaret M. Manion and Bernard M. Muir, eds., The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998); Margaret M. Manion and Bernard M. Muir, eds., Medieval Texts and Images: Studies of Manuscripts from the Middle Ages (Sydney: Craftsman House, 1991).

23

emphasized the importance of the work and the printed text when he commissioned its publication in 1497. Instead, historians have only subjected the De religione to extensive bibliographic analysis since the late eighteenth century as a result of conflicting views on the provenance and dates of the various versions of the work. The discovery of an early sixteenthcentury manuscript version of Boyl’s translation that contained the colophon of the original lost manuscript settled the date of the original translation to 13 February 1484.67 Conrad Haebler and Cebrià Baraut finally identified Iohann Hurus as the printer of the 1489 edition and Zaragoza as the place of publication.68 The colophon of the 1497 Latin edition of Isaac’s work identifies Diego de Gumiel as the printer and Barcelona as the place of publication, though not the date or month it was printed. Unlike these printed versions, the sixteenth-century manuscript containing Boyl’s treatise has been ignored (Appendix 1) except for an inaccurate modern catalogue description of the book.

César Nardelli Cambrai and Sebastià Janeras have only recently

completed preliminary studies of the dissemination and interrelationship between the various versions of the De religione in the Spanish Kingdoms.69 In each case, however, scholars have

67

Cebrìa Baraut, “En torno al lugar donde fue impresa la traducción Castellana del Isaac ‘De religione’ de Bernardo Boil,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 37 (1962): 174 n. 15. The dating of the manuscript is my own and not Baraut’s, who did not address the problem of dating the manuscript as part of his study. 68

Conrad Haebler, Bibliografía ibérica del siglo XV. Enumeración de todos los libros impresos en España y Portugal hasta el año 1500, 2 vols. (The Hague, Martin Nijhoff, 1903-1917; reprint, Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2000), #325, 1: 152; Idem, Early Printers of Spain and Portugal (London, Printed for the Bibliographical society, at the Chiswick press, 1897), 50; Idem, Typographie ibérique du quinzième siècle : Reproduction en facsimile de tous les caractères typographiques employés en Espagne et en Portugal jusqu'à l'année 1500. Avec notices critiques et biographiques (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1901-1902), 47; Idem, Geschichte des spanischen Frühdruckes in Stammbäumen (Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1923), 284, plate 289 and 302-303; Baraut, “En torno al lugar,” 176. 69

César Nardelli Cambraia, “A difusão da obra de Isaac de Nínive em línguas ibero-românicas: breve notícia des tradiçiões portuguesa, espanhola e catalã,” in Performance, exílio, fronteiras: errâncias territoriais e textuats, edited by Graciela Ravetti and Márcia Arbex (Belo Horizonte: Departamento de Letras Românicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, Estudos Literários, Faculdade de Letras, UFMG, 2002), 293-315; Sebastià Janeras. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive dans la Péninsula Ibérique,” in Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy, edited by Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 1 (Piscataway, NJ:

24

ignored the contexts that produced the translation and printed editions, the format of the books, and their use within the eremitic community. This lack of attention to the social history of the book has not only created errors in the current bibliographical history of the manuscripts and incunabula, but has also left an incomplete history of the form and use of the De religione as a religious work at Montserrat. In order to understand the differences and importance both reformers placed on the repeated publication of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione within the constitutional reforms of Montserrat, I provide a new and comprehensive analysis of the book as a source within its social, cultural and religious context. A study without this more inclusive and expanded approach through the field of the book history leaves out the most important evidence for understanding the pastoral side of reform specific to Montserrat during two decades of reform. The reforms created the book’s format based on local contexts, and readers, printers, and writers used these books according to their particular needs.70 This was true for both manuscripts and printed books during the reforms at Montserrat. Looking at the various versions and editions of the De religione therefore provides an additional and direct way to understand the evolving aims, goals, and difficulties of reform at the hermitage. This investigation puts forward a new history of the hermits’ response to reform through the reexamination of religious books of instruction as objects of reform. My discussion of the De religione begins with the lost Latin text used by Boyl for his translation and the lost original vernacular manuscript completed by Boyl in February 1484. I

Gorgias Press, 2007), 247-274. 70

Brian Richardson, Printing, Writers, and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 122

25

will later argue that the decision to print the translation in 1489 had little to do with the internal reform of the hermits, but instead responded to Boyl’s relationship with a community of friends interested in theological study and church reform. I also will discuss how the importance of the 1489 edition for the hermits did not appear until García Jiménez de Cisneros prints the Latin version of Isaac’s treatise in 1497 as a companion volume to the vernacular edition. The heretofore unstudied early sixteenth-century manuscript version of Boyl’s translation becomes a reflection of continuity of the reform begun under Boyl when he entered the eremitic community and reinvented by Jiménez de Cisneros in 1497 out of pastoral concerns to join the monks and hermits into a single religious body. This dynamic view of book history highlights how Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione reveals the problematic role of religious literature and constitutions during the reforms of Montserrat at the end of the fifteenth century. By specifically composing and selecting texts for their reforms, the reformers responded to challenges at Montserrat that could not be addressed by simply importing religious writings composed for other reforms and contexts. To overcome the difficulties of reform, traditional religious literature used at Montserrat had to be adapted to their contexts, while new constitutions had to be composed by the reformers to attend to the local circumstances within the eremitic community. Religious books of instruction, in this sense, must be studied not simply for their devotional and theological content, but as instructional manuals in religious life used to negotiate new customs and devotional practices introduced at Montserrat. This negotiation was a matter of necessity for successful reform. As Abbot Trithemius of Sponheim remarked, “By far the most prized possession of any monastery is a bond of true peace. Without this peace no amount of religious dedication will please God. Hence, as soon as peace has become extinct in a

26

community of monks, the whole vigor or monastic life is doomed to ruin.”71

A Note on Names, Places, and Dates Writing the history of the medieval Spanish Kingdoms has several difficulties. One of these difficulties is the translation of personal names, book titles, geographical areas, cities, and other locations, since modern Spain is a conglomeration of separate medieval kingdoms with their own languages, cultural history, and geographical borders. I have by necessity adopted a measure of standardization to facilitate the reading of the main text and footnotes. Personal names pose a particular problem. Medieval sources record several different variants for the same person, sometimes in spelling and sometimes by different names altogether. The penchant for modern scholars to modify medieval names based on langduage and nationalism contributes to this confusion. Several scholars, notably Fidel Fita, even use different names for the same person in articles written within months of each other. For this reason, I will use a standard form based on birthplace or family (when known) and/or the place where the person lived. Also, I have decided not to Anglicize names, except in the case of popes or other notable non-Iberian people, as the Castilian and Catalan names are those found in current bibliography. The main figures in this dissertation are especially problematic. For example, Bernat Boyl’s name appears as Boillus, Boil, Boyl, Buyl, and Buil in medieval sources. Modern writers use Boyl, Buyl, Buil, Boïl, Bueil, and Boil, along with Bernal, Bernat, Bernando, Bernardo, and Bernard. I have settled on Bernat Boyl, as it is the name he used in his vernacular letters.

71

Quoted in Behrendt, “The Library of Abbot Trithemius,” 78.

27

García Jiménez de Cisneros also has medieval and modern variants. I will avoid using Garsia or Garsie for his first name and Ximénez de Cisneros or simply Cisneros for his surname. I adopt instead the full name of García Jiménez de Cisneros, as this is the name used in the title of his only modern biography. Furthermore, it should be noted that García Jiménez de Cisneros held two different offices at Montserrat, the office of prior between 1493 and 1499 and abbot between 1499 and 1510. Scholarship in general uses the title of abbot, as it is the last and more prestigious title he held at Montserrat. However, I will use the title of prior as opposed to his title of abbot, since this dissertation ends in the year 1497 before Montserrat regained its abbatial status in 1499. In the case of the Catholic Monarchs, I have chosen Fernando because of his Trastámara family lineage, although the Catalan Ferrán (which would be more accurate) is the name he used in the vast majority of his documents concerning Montserrat. I have also chosen to identify Fernando by his Aragonese title rather than his Castilian title, thus King Fernando II de Aragón as opposed to Fernando V de Castilla y León. I have chosen Queen Isabel I de Castilla over Isabela or Isabelle de Castilla y León. Whenever possible, I will provide genealogical information in the notes to clarify the confusing use of repetitive names by members of the royal family. Place names in the dissertation will correspond to those used in modern Europe with some exceptions. I will use France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sicily, Rome, and Naples. I will avoid using the name Spain, as it did not exist as a political territory in the Middle Ages. Spanish Kingdoms (exclusive of Portugal) will be used instead. When spoken about separately, the Spanish Kingdoms will follow their modern usage: thus Castilla, Aragón, León, and Navarra. Modern city names are chosen over anglicized names: thus Sevilla and Zaragoza rather than 28

Seville and the anachronistic Saragossa. I will use Catalan place names for areas in Catalunya: Lleida, not Lérida and Roselló not Rosellón/Rousillon. Churches and monuments will use names based on their present location. Instead of translating Bernat Boyl’s hermitage as the Hermitage of the Holy Trinity or La Santa Trinidad, for example, I will use la Santa Trinitat. With regard to official titles, particularly in the church and chancery, I have translated these words into English for clarity. As with place names, I will provide the original title or office within parentheses when it helps define the terms. All titles of medieval religious books will appear in the original language. Jiménez de Cisneros’s Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual will be used instead of Exercises in the Spiritual Life and De religione as opposed to On the Religious Life. To complicate matters, the Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual had both a Latin and a Castilian version printed at Montserrat in 1500. I will use the specific title of the work when speaking of a particular version. Thus, the Latin version will appear as Exercitatorium vitae spiritualis or simply Exercitatorium. When speaking of the work in general, I will always refer to the original Castilian title, Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual, or simply Exercitatorio. The reader should be aware from the outset that this dissertation contains a detailed discussion of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione. Technically speaking, the title De religione was adopted by Iohann Hurus when he printed Bernat Boyl’s translation in 1489 (Appendix 2).72 It is possible that this was the title used by Boyl, although it is not known for sure. However, this is the least common name for Issac’s text in Europe. We only need to look at the Latin version printed by Diego de Gumiel for Jiménez de Cisneros in 1497, which had the title of De

72

Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, translated by Bernat Boyl (Sant Cugat del Vallès [Zaragoza]: [Iohann Hurus], 29 November 1489).

29

ordinacione anime (Appendix 3).73 To complicate the issue, the early sixteenth-century manuscript copy of Boyl’s translation does not have a title (it bears the title of De uita contemplatiua supplied by a seventeenth-century cataloguer).

I have chosen the title De

religione throughout the dissertation, and distinguish the translation from the Latin version by adding cumbersome phrases such as “the translation of the De religione” or “the Latin version of the De religione.” I will use this method except on the occasions when I specifically discuss the De ordinacione anime printed by Diego de Gumiel in 1497 among other versions of the text. Finally, all translations within the text are my own except when otherwise noted. The original text will be placed in the notes for lengthy citations. Short citations or word studies will include the original words and sentences within the main body of the text.

73

Isaac of Nineveh, Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtulis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes (Barcelona: Diego de Gumiel, 1497).

30

CHAPTER ONE TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF THE HERMITAGE OF MONTSERRAT Introduction It could be ironic to the reader that this study begins by reconstructing the constitutions or customs that governed the hermits of Montserrat before the reforms of the late fifteenth century, since hermits, by the very nature of their ascetic practice, chose to live in solitude away from the rules that govern society and coenobitic religious communities. It was not uncommon, however, for solitaries to adopt some form of rule to govern their way of life when gathered in semieremitic communities like Montserrat. This acquiescence to social governance was also true for hermits that lived near monasteries, where the eremitic and coenobitic communities developed an intracommunal relationship. Such circumstances produced oral and/or written customs to establish boundaries, jurisdiction, authority, rules, and ceremonials to order the internal life at the hermitage and its relationship with the larger monastic community. In the case of Montserrat, these customs developed over several hundred years, and did not take on more organized, written form until the early fifteenth century. This chapter will focus on the customs governing the hermits of Montserrat prior to the reforms of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Bernat Boyl and García Jiménez de Cisneros. Later chapters examine how these customs were expanded under della Rovere, manipulated by Boyl, or rewritten under Jiménez de Cisneros to implement reform and assert authority over the eremitic community.

31

The fragmentary nature of the sources and large gaps of evidence hinders our ability to analyze the pre-reform constitutions that governed the eremitic community. Only scattered royal, episcopal, and local documents survive prior to the fifteenth century. Neither the 1310 ordinances of Prior Bernart Escarrer (d. 1321/1322) nor the 1360 ordinances of Prior Jaume de Viver (d. 1375) survive.1 The earliest extant written customs appear during the abbacy of Abbot Marc de Vilalba (d. 1439), who reorganized the monastery and hermitage after Montserrat’s independence from the Abbey of Ripoll.2 Additional fifteenth-century papal, royal, and local records supplement the information found in Vilalba’s constitutions. Finally, we possess the ceremonials and Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza that formed the basis of the government at Montserrat as a member of the congregation.3

The congregation’s

constitutions, however, only provide auxiliary evidence regarding the hermits, since the constitutions were strictly concerned with coenobitic communities. Reconstructing the prereform constitutions reveals a complex jurisdictional relationship that supported the independence of the hermits against the authority of the monastery. This independent status of the hermits, based on long-held oral and written customs, provided the precedent for their

1

Miquel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” 18th century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, fol. 179r. 2

Benet Ribas i Calaf, ed., “Constitutions of Abbot Marc de Vilalba,” in Annals de Montserrat, (12581485), edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 246-247 (hereafter cited as Constitutions of Abbot Marc de Vilalba); Ribas i Calaf., ed., “Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer,” in Annals de Montserrat, 271-283 (hereafter cited as Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer). Abbot Ferrer’s constitutions, legislated on 2 April 1456, were partially edited in Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): #2. 3

Antoni Tobella, ed., “La congregació claustral Tarraconense i les diverse recapitulacions de les seves constitucions provincials,” in Catalonia Monastica. Recull de documents i estudis referents a monestirs Catalans, 2 vols. (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1927-1929), 2: 111-251 (hereafter cited as Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza).

32

resistance to the late fifteenth-century reforms at Montserrat under Bernat Boyl and García Jiménez de Cisneros.

The Size of the Eremitic Community Tradition held that twelve hermits inhabited the mountain of Montserrat in emulation of the original twelve apostles. Our earliest evidence, however, suggests that the hermits were nothing more than solitaries established around separate hermitages and sanctuaries dedicated to particular saints on the mountain of Montserrat.4

This informal semi-eremitic community

existed before Abbot Oliba of Ripoll converted the hermitage of Santa Maria de Montserrat into a dependent coenobitic priory between 1023 and 1025.5 The legends retelling the life of the eleventh-century hermit Guarin provide us nothing more than a window into the minds of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century monks who invented the story. Montserrat’s hermits differed substantially from other contemporary communities in Europe.6 First, the hermits did not follow the pattern of coenobitic monks who abandoned a monastery to seek a religious life of solitude, but maintained their relationships with the coenobitic community. Second, the eremitic community also did not follow what Henrietta 4

This information stems from three documents with the dates of 945, 1025, and 1032. Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Història de Montserrat (888-1258) by Benet Ribas i Calaf, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 19 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1990), 66; Albareda, Història de Montserrat, 13; García M. Colombás, “La santa montaña de Montserrat,” in España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos, Analecta legerensia 1 (Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970), 167; Ernesto Zaragoza i Pascual, Els Ermitans de Montserrat. Història d’una institució benedictina singular, Subsidia monastica 20 (Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1993), 18. 5

Albareda, Història de Montserrat, 9, 12-13 and 189.

6

Henrietta Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism: A Study of Religious Communities in Western Europe 1000-1150 (New York: St. Martins Press, 1984), 13-14, 19 and 38-41; C.H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (New York: Longman, 2001), 149; Peter King, Western Monasticism: A History of the Monastic Movement in the Latin Church, Cistercian Studies Series 185 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1999), 144-146.

33

Leyser has called the “Orders of the New Hermits”: solitaries who briefly began as individual charismatics, but quickly established a coenobitic community to support anchoritic practices, such as those at Camadoli, Fonte Avellana, Vallombrosa, and Grabamont.7 These communities, unlike the hermits of Montserrat, joined the traditions of coenobitism with eremitism, where the hermit was trained in a monastery, lived under a monastic rule, and gave obedience to an abbot.8 There is no evidence, however, to suggest that either the hermits or the monastery limited the number of hermits living on the mountain prior to the fifteenth century. It is most likely that a varied but small group gathered together to live in solitude. The first mention of an organized semi-eremitic community appears in 1330 requisition ordered by Archbishop and PriorAdministrator Joan de Aragón (d. 1334), which recorded ten hermits living on the mountain.9 There may have been more than ten hermits at the time, as the size of the community waxed and waned over the centuries.10 The ten hermits suggest that the community had by then adopted the traditional number of twelve recluses that would endure through the early reforms of the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid. The abbot, however, gained the right to limit the number of hermits living on the mountain to twelve when Pope Benedict XIII (1411-1422/23) made the monastery an independent abbey 11 March 1409, though it should be noted that similar limits were applied to

7

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 19-20. For a concise summary of these movements, see Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, 149-168 and King, Western Monasticism, 146-154. 8

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 19-20 and 87-90; David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), 18-19. On the tradition of semi-eremitic practices that included both a superior and a rule, see Clément Lialine, “Érémitisme: Érémitisme en orient,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 4: col. 944. 9

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 174.

10

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 169; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 76.

34

the monks, priests, and servants who could live at the monastery.11 Three years later, the pope confirmed the restriction on the size of the community when he granted the hermits the right to wear the scapular on the grounds of the monastery.12 These numerical limits were not unusual for semi-eremitic communities in the fifteenth century. The Observantine Eremitic Franciscans led by Pedro de Villacreces (d. 1422) ordered all priories to maintain no more than twelve hermits in their houses at any one time.13 The fixed number of hermits became the accepted norm throughout the fifteenth century. For example, the confirmation of the Confraternity of Montserrat on 10 June 1415 recorded twelve hermits as witnesses to the document.14 Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455), when confirming the gifts given by King Alfonso V de Aragón (1396-1458) and his wife Queen María (14011458), distinguished between those granted to the monastery and those to the twelve hermits.15 Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer (d. 1472) cited Benedict XIII’s bull as his precedent for the limit placed on the size of the community when he reconfirmed Vilalba’s constitutions after the brief and failed takeover of the monastery by the Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua between 11

Benedict XIII to Abbot Marc de Vitalba. Perpinyà, 11 March 1409. Cebrià Baraut, “Benet XIII, darrer papa d’Avinyó i el monestir de Montserrat,” Studia monastica 13 (1971): #2, 89. 12

Benedict XIII to the hermits of Montserrat. Peníscola, 5 February 1412. Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #9, 96.

13

“Rotulus Fratris Petri de Villacreces,” in Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia en España: Las reformas en los siglos XIV y XV. Número extraordinario de la revista con ocasión del V Centenario de San Pedro Regalado (1456-1956), edited by Alejandro Recio, Diosdado Merino, Fidel de Lejarza, and Ángel Uribe, Archivo Ibero-Americano 17 (Madrid: Juan Bravo, 1958), 656. 14

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 243.

15

Nicholas V to Bishop Jaime Giralt of Barcelona. Rome, 1 April 1447. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 262-263. There is a discrepancy between the date of the document offered by Ribas i Calaf and Cebrìa Baraut. Baraut inexplicably dates this document to 19 March 1447. Baraut’s transcription has a different date than he offers in his heading: “Datum Rome apud sanctum Petrum anno incarnationis dominice millesimo quadrigentesimo quadragesimo sexto, quarto decimo kalendas aprilis, pontificatus nostri anno primo.” Baraut offers no reasons for the choice of March 19, and as such the document’s date of April 2 should be accepted. See, Cebrià Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda de monjos de Montecassino à Montserrat (1443-1455),” Studia monastica 18 (1975): #1, 306-307.

35

1440 and 1450.16 Almost twenty years later, Abbot Joan de Peralta (d. 1505) described the presence of the twelve hermits, including Bernat Boyl, as witnesses to his confirmation of the Confraternity of Montserrat on 25 May 1484.17 Early records of the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid’s reform show the strength of the tradition when the Castilian monks gained possession of the monastery. The 1493 Capitulatión del prior y monges de Montserrate con los hermitaños mentioned the presence of twelve recluses during the reformers’ initial investigation of the hermitage.18 Even the anonymous early sixteenth-century history of the Vallisoletano reform, the Liber reformationis montisserati, described how the reformers maintained the traditional number of twelve hermits when they gained control over the monastery in 1493.19 If we accept the hermits’ freedom to choose its members and determine the size of the community prior to 1409, Benedict XIII’s bull provided a new and unprecedented authority to the abbot over the hermits’ membership to the community, even if the hermits had more or less maintained this number during the previous centuries. Certainly, the pope and abbot chose the number twelve to provide an earthly reflection of the twelve apostles. In practical matters, the 16

Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer, 280; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #11, 327. One hermit took on the Observantine habit under Abbot Antoni de Avinyó i Moles (1440-1450). Montserrat also remained part of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza during the period under Avinyó. Anselm M. Albareda, Història de Montserrat (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1931; reprint, Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1998), 60-61; García M. Colombás, Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, abad de Montserrat, Studia et documenta 5 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955), 60; Jaume Colell, “Vingueren à Montserrat monjos de Monte-Cassino a mitjans del segle XV?” Analecta montserratensia 1 (1917): 193-200; Anselm M. Albareda, “Monjos de Montecassino à Montserrat,” in Casinensia: miscellane di studi Cassinensi, publicati in occasione del XIV centenario della fondazione dell’abadia de Montecassino, 2 vols. (1929): 2: 210-216; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #8, 311-314; Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523),” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 333-360. 17

Confirmation of the Confraternity of Montserrat. Montserrat, 25 May 1484. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 310; partial transcription in Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #23, 57. 18

“La capitulatión del prior y monges y los hermitaños de Montserrate,” in García Jiménez de Cisneros, García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, edited by Cipriano Baraut, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 1: 174 (herafter cited as La capitulatión del prior y monges). 19

Xavier Altés i Aguiló, “Els abats montserratins del segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati,” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 164 (hereafter cited as Liber reformationis).

36

small community benefited from the monastery when they began to provide material support during the fourteenth century as discussed below. However, these limits and benefits came at a cost. By 1409, Benedict XIII gave Abbot Vilalba and his successors the right to control who could join the community without any interference from the solitaries residing on the mountain.

Profession Unfortunately, we have very little evidence describing the hermits’ novitiate and profession before the Constitutiones haeremitarum montiserrati enacted by García Jiménez de Cisneros in 1494.20 Our earliest evidence, an early fourteenth-century profession, described how the hermits professed as lay and independent solitaries outside of the jurisdiction of the prior of Montserrat.21 On 15 June 1326, Bishop Pons de Gualba of Barcelona (d. 1344) received the profession of the hermit Berenguer de Palomar.22 According to the formula of profession, Berenguer swore to live according to the Rule of Saint Benedict under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience “to you the lord Bishop of Barcelona.”23 The bishop, on the other hand, authorized Berenguer to lead the eremitic life “on the mountain peaks (montaneis) of Montserrat 20

The constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza described the practices for coenobitic monks. Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 215-217. 21

Anselm M. Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat al segle XVè. L’ermità Bernat Boil,” Estudios lulianos 9

(1965): 11. 22

Barcelona, Arxiu Diocesà, Comm., 1325-1330, fol. 43r. There is an incomplete transcription of this record found in Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 11 n. 21. Zaragoza i Pascual offered a different citation for the document than did Albareda, stating that it appeared on fol. 3r and not fol. 43r. This is a typographic error. Zaragoza i Pascual, Els ermitans, 19 n. 11. 23

“Nos Poncius, Dei gratia episcopus barch., notum facere volumus...fratrem Berengarium de Palomerio... in meis manibus, sub hiis verbis professionem fecisse: Quantum possum, Ego Berengarius de Palomerio promitto obedientiam monachelem, secundum regulam beati Benedicti, Deo et Vobis, domino episcopo barch., cum castitate et abdicatione proprietatis.” Albareda, “Llul·lisme à Montserrat,” 11 n. 21. This triple vow was a twelfth-century development. Giancarlo Rocca, “Professione: Le formule di professione in Occidente,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 7: cols. 939-940.

37

or any other honest place within the diocese.”24 These vows were not solemn; rather they were simple recitations identifying the religious status of the lay hermit without making him a monk in the coenobitic community.25 Several important conclusions emerge from Berenguer’s profession. First, the bishop, and not the prior, served as the hermit’s immediate superior through his vow of obedience. This was not an unusual custom during the Middle Ages. Often a layman or woman seeking an independent or solitary form of religious life would seek the authority of the bishop to sanction their religious calling.26 Episcopal oversight, confirmed by the vow of obedience, provided a degree of supervision to ensure a hermit’s orthodoxy. This vow became increasingly important in light of the fears of heterodoxy that could result from lay ascetics living outside of religious communities governed by an approved rule and local superior.27 This was no different for Berenguer de Palomar.

Bishop de Gualba provided an orthodox authority to evaluate his

spiritual calling and capabilities before his profession and afterwards supervise Berenguer as he led his life in solitude on the mountain.

24

“Nos demum eidem fratri Berengario de Palomario, [concedimus ut,] in montaneis Montiserrati, sue in alio loco honesto et idoneo nostre diocesis remanere, et habitare valeat.” Barcelona, Arxiu Diocesà, Comm., 13251330, fol. 43r. Incomplete transcription found in Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 11 n. 21. 25

J. Torres, “Voto,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 10: cols. 555-558. 26

J. Winandy, “Professione: La professione degli eremiti,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 7: col. 966. On the episcopal support for hermits, see Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 80-81. For example, Bruno of Cologne, the chancellor and master of the school of the Cathedral of Reims and founder of the Carthusians, obtained the permission of the Bishop Hugh of Grenoble before starting the eremitic life. He received grants of lands provided by the bishop to support his calling. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, 156. 27

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 78-80; Herbert Grundmann, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages, translated by Steven Rowan (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 60 and 141142; José María Miura Andrades, Frailes, monjas y conventos: las órdenes mendicantes y la sociedad sevillana bajomedieval, Publicaciones de la Excelentísima Diputación Provincial de Sevilla: Sección Historia 49 (Sevilla: Diputación de Sevilla, 1998), 197.

38

Berenguer’s vow to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict did not make him a coenobitic monk living under a rule and abbot. As with other non-cloistered religious, the Rule provided an orthodox guide to the ascetic life in the absence of a community and local superior.28 The bishop, as the superior, replaced the role of the abbot as spiritual father to the monk.29 This, of course, created several problems for spiritual direction of the hermit. On the one hand, the hermit did not have immediate access to the bishop when questions surfaced over the religious life given the distance between Montserrat and Barcelona. On the other hand, the lack of a local superior removed the abbot’s ability to constantly oversee and correct the hermit’s religious practices. This in a sense placed the hermit in the position of being a semi-Sarabaite, as he lived under a rule but without an abbot correcting his faults.30 The absence of an abbot and the lack of a vow of stability made clear that Berenguer de Palomar was not a Benedictine monk trained in the monastery under the obedience of the prior: he was a secular hermit outside of the monastic cloister and subject only to the oversight of the bishop.31 The location of the hermit’s profession emphasizes the difference between the solitary and the cloistered monk. Traditional Benedictine profession took place in presence of the monastic community, the abbot, and the Rule in the oratory of the monastery.32 The location and 28

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 87; Brian Patrick McGuire, Jean Gerson and the Last Medieval Reformation (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005), 120. 29

Harris argued that the Rule of the Master and the Rule of Saint Benedict correlated the authority of the abbot with the authority of the bishop. Kym Harris, “Abbatial Obedience,” Tjurunga 62 (2002): 52. 30

RB1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes, edited by Timothy Fry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1981), 1:6-9 (hereafter cited as RB). 31

Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 11.

32

RB c. 59: 17-20 and the commentary provided by Fry on pages 451-454 and 457-466. Catherine Capelle, Le voeu d’obédissance des origines au XIIe siècle: étude juridique (Paris: Libraire générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1959), 56-57; Adalbert de Vogüe, “Professione: La professione in Occidente (sec. IV-IX),” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 7: col. 912.

39

witnesses to the ceremony solidified the relationship between the novice and the community living as a single body under the authority of the abbot and the Rule (sub regula vel abbate).33 In Berenguer’s case, however, the bishop received his profession in the cathedral, joining the hermit to the larger diocesan secular religious community distinct from those living as professed religious within the enclosure of a monastery. The bishop and his chapter took the traditional place of the abbot, the monastic community, and the Rule.

They confirmed the hermit’s

independence from the prior and monastic community by the liturgical ceremony and authority of the bishop - a measure of independence made all the more powerful given the monastery’s location within the Diocese of Vic and not Barcelona. The bishop’s authority over the hermits decreased dramatically in the years following Berenguer de Palomar’s profession. The change from episcopal to monastic jurisdiction began during the priorate of Archbishop Joan de Aragón, who succeeded in forcing the community to submit to the spiritual authority of the prior during his visitation 1330. Henceforth, the prior could investigate (inquisitione) the religious discipline of the hermits and hand out punishments (punitione) for any faults that he encountered.34 He secured this right by exacting a “vow” of obedience. This was not a second vow of profession, since that would involve a duplication of vows contrary to canon law.35 Nor was it simply a pledge of obedience given at the election of a

33

RB c.1:2. Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius, 73-74; Adrian Hastings, “St. Benedict and the Eremitic Life,” Downside Review 68 (1949-1950): 193-194; Bernard-Marie Chevignard, “Formation Spirituelle,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 5: cols. 712-713. 34

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 173-174; Miquel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” 18th century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r. 35

A second profession would be seen as a repetition of vows, and confuse the act of becoming a monk as a one-time entrance into a new state of Christian life, comparable to the repetitiousness of a second baptism. Margorie Chibnall, “From Bec to Canterbury: Anselm and Monastic Privilege,” in Piety, Power and History in Medieval England and Normandy (Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Variorum, 2000), 29 and 38.

40

new superior, as Archbishop Joan had been appointed superior of Montserrat two years earlier in 1328. Rather, the switch to monastic jurisdiction involved a new form of obedience between the hermits and the prior, strictly confined to his authority to investigate and correct the hermits in his role as spiritual vicar.36 The archbishop’s actions, however, created a fundamental problem. Now there were two forms of obedience: profession was made to the bishop, but the prior also received obedience to conduct investigations and correct the hermits. To avoid this problem, the priors quickly gained the right to approve new hermits and receive their profession in conjunction with their right to visit and correct the eremitic community. For example, a letter sent by the Infante Joan de Aragón (1350-1393), son of King Pere IV el Cerimoniós (1319-1387), to Prior Pere Rigalt de Vern on 23 February 1379 recorded the infante’s request to have the prior accept Antoni de Verjús, a former servant in the king’s household, as a potential hermit at Montserrat.37 Similarly, the fourteenth-century legendary romance Mélusine by Jean d’Arras (c. 1387) described how Raymond de Poitiers became a hermit at Montserrat upon the death of his wife, the water fairy Mélusine. After conferring with the pope and receiving permission from the prior, Raymond entered the community and lived out

36

My opinion differs here from that of Baraut, who believed that it was nothing more than the traditional oath of obedience granted to a new superior. Baraut, Obras completas, 1: 172 n. 3. 37

Infante Joan de Aragón to Prior Pere Rigalt de Vern of Montserrat. Barcelona, 23 February 1379. Josep María Roca, ed., “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó,” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1922): 436-437; Albareda, Historia de Montserrat, 196; Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 168 n. 10. The document from 1379 described de Verjús as Joan d’Aragón’s domestic servant (domestich e de casa nostra). Roca, “Documents del Arxiu,” 437. A letter from 1392 also described de Verjús as Joan d’Aragón’s former secretary (scriva dela cambra nostra). King Joan I d’Aragón to Prior Vicenç de Ribas. Barcelona, 16 April 1392. Josep María Roca, ed., “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó i del reial patrimoni,” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1920-1921): 328; Antonio Rubio y Lluch, ed. Documents per l’historia de la cultura catalana mig-eval, 2 vols. (Barcelona: Institut d’estudis Catalans, 1908-1921), 2: #341, 329. Rubio y Lluch in the document from 1379 incorrectly spells de Verjús’ name as “Anthoin de Verins,” which is likely confusion of “ins” for “jus.”

41

his days as a hermit.38 Completed in 1393, Jean d’Arras’s may have draw on contemporary knowledge of Montserrat, although he might simply have relied on local Burgundian traditions of religious profession.39

Nevertheless, both the infante’s request and the Mélusine tale

demonstrate how the king and the pope acknowledged the prior’s authority to confirm new entrants into the hermitage. The authority continued through the reforms of the Congregation of Valladolid.40 Benedict XIII, for example, coupled the restriction on the number of hermits with who could and who could not enter the eremitic community. The pope confirmed the abbot’s right to select a new hermit when one of the brethren died or left the hermitage.41 In 1480, the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza confirmed this right as part of the papal confirmation of Montserrat’s constitutions.42 The confirmation reiterated the abbot’s right to reject future hermits “unless they were proven in complete renunciation (nisi probatu in omni abjectione).”43 The ability to approve new candidates and receive their profession was no small matter given the importance of the vow of obedience, since obedience determined who had religious 38

Jean d’Arras, Mélusine ou la noble histoire de Lusignan: roman du XIVe siècle, edited and translated by Jean-Jacques Vincensini (Paris: Libraire générale français, 2003), 728-735. For illuminations showing this profession, see Amédée Pagès, La poésie française en Catalogne du XIIIe siècle a la fin du XVe, Bibliothèque méridionale, publicacions sous les auspices de la Faculté des lettres de Toulouse 23 (Paris: Henri Didier, 1936), Plates 3 and 4, 75-82. 39

It is interesting to note that d’Arras described Montserrat as a priory and not as an abbey. This may suggest a more detailed knowledge of the community and its practices at this time. Raymond of Poitiers’s stay at Montserrat, given its length and importance to the narrative, merits further investigation since the romance itself was written for the duke of Burgundy, who had close ties to the crown of Aragón. 40

Bonifacio Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños de Montserrat,” Revista montserratina 5 (1911): 435.

41

“Et quotiens aliqui ex dictis monachis, presbiteris, servitoribus, vel heremitis defuerint, vel obierint alios de novo in loco illorum recipere...” Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #2, 89. 42

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r. 43

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r.

42

authority and established the hierarchical relationship between the two communities. Yet, these simple vows maintained an important level of independence from the prior. Their profession did not contain the leveling of the hierarchical relationship found in the Rule of Saint Benedict among monks and their abbot, where the new monk gave obedience to the Rule and the abbot.44 As noted by the author of the Liber reformationis, the hermits never professed solemn vows, “but always remained mere seculars with full liberty, returning to the world as they will.”45

Visitation and Correction The bishop, according to the profession of Berenguer de Palomar, originally held the right to visit, correct, and punish the hermits over matters of spiritual discipline. This practice, like the formula of profession, maintained an important level of independence from the prior of the monastery. To compensate for the absence of the bishop, a senior hermit or hermits, would serve as a type of “spiritual vicar,” as described in Bishop de Gualba’s permission for two ordained hermits to hear each other’s confessions and the confessions of four additional lay brothers at Montserrat in 1316. The privilege reaffirmed the independence of the hermits with regard to discipline and penance within their own community against that of the monastery.46

44

De Vogüe, The Rule of Saint Benedict, a Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary, translated by John Baptist Hasbrouck, Cistercian Studies Series 54 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1983), 106. On the traditional hierarchical view, see Idem, Community and Abbot in the Rule of Saint Benedict, translated by Charles Philippi, Cistercian Studies Series 51 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1979), 41; Jean-Marie Tillard, “Obéissance,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 11: col. 557. 45

Liber reformationis, 163.

46

Albareda neither edits nor cites the archive and call number where the document is located. Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 12 n. 22.

43

This situation changed when Archbishop Joan de Aragón of Tarragona exacted an oath of obedience allowing for visitations of the community by the prior.47 This new right created a conflict between the two communities, leading to the intervention of the papal legate of Gregory XI (1370-1378), Cardinal Guy de Boulougne, bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina (1350-1373) 10 July 1372.48 In response to the hermits’ complaints, over the selection of their confessors which had transferred to the prior, Cardinal de Boulougne restored the hermits’ right to choose their own confessors, while supporting the prior’s right to approve the hermits’ choice just as he did in the monastic community.49 Such confessions would be performed at a minimum of once a year during the visitation of the hermitage by the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza.50 It was a small, but important victory for the hermits, when the preservation of the custom became demand during the visitation conducted by the Congregation of Valladolid in 1493.51 By the early fifteenth century, the practice of visitation took on the formal language of canon law not found in the fourteenth-century documents.

According to the 1409 bull of

emancipation, Abbot Marc de Vilalba retained the right to correct and punish the hermits as part of his spiritual oversight of the community. This paralleled his authority to discipline the entire

47

Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 56-57 and 60.

48

The privilege also granted the hermits remission of sins equal to pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and the Holy Land through their confessions and penance. Cardinal Guy de Boulougne, bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina, to the hermits of Montserrat. Barcelona, 10 July 1372. Cebrià Baraut, “Documents reials i pontificis de l’antic arxiu de Montserrat (segles XII-XV),” Studia monastica 35 (1993): #4, 142-143. 49

The confessors in the monastery had to be other monks from within the congregation or the monastic community. Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 192-193. 50

Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 191.

51

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174.

44

religious community at Montserrat, which included the monks, priests, servants, and vassals. 52 The abbot’s authority came directly from his jurisdiction (jurisdiccio) over the entire community, where he held full legal rights (pleno jure) to administer the temporal and spiritual affairs of each brother.53 The canonical language invoked the tradition of religious jurisdiction (juridiction ecclesiastique) reserved for the abbot by the Rule, now supported in canon law and the Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza.54 The abbot exercised his rights to correct and punish the hermits when he or his vicar ascended from the monastery to determine if any should be admonished, corrected, and/or punished for lapses in discipline.55 The practice likely followed the legislation found in the Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza or the more personal investigation carried out by Archbishop Joan de Aragón at the hermitage in 1330.56 We know that the papal nuncio Francisco Ortiz investigated the hermitage in 1476 soon after Cardinal Giuliano della

52

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 239; Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #2, 89-90. Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer recorded the same phrase in his constitutions. Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer, 273; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #1, 318. 53

“Benet XIII,” #2, 89-90. Because the abbot was considered a prelate in the monastery, and often as a bishop, this issue of correction and punishment fell under his sacramental powers as a priest. 54

For the legal description of this form of jurisdiction, see J.H.R. Prompsault, ed., Dictionnaire raissoné de droit et de jurisprudence en matiere civile ecclésiastique Tome: 4, in Encyclopédie Théologique ou série de dictionnaires sur toutes les parties de la science religiuse, edited by J.P. Migne, 50 vols. (Paris: Ateliers Catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, 1845-1873), 37: col. 670. Auguste Dumas “Juridiction ecclesiastique,” in Dictionnaire de droit canonique, edited by R. Naz, 7 vols. (Paris: Libraire Letouzey et Ané, 1957), 6: 236. Robert Grosseteste supported this point of view on the basis of the abbot’s jurisdiction. “Praelatus igitur, cujus typus est Moses, non minutus potestate data aliis de spiritu suo in omnes suos subditos, plenam ordinarium et judiciariam potestatem, ac per hoc plenam correctionem et reformationem.” Robert Grosseteste, “Letter 127,” in Roberti Grosseteste quondam episcopi Lincolniensis epistolae, edited by H. Luard, Rolls Series 26 (London: Longman: 1861), 360. 55

For an excellent summary of this process in religious orders, see J. Oberste, “Visita: La visita canonica,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 10: cols. 115-122. 56

Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 172-179.

45

Rovere (d. 1513) secured his position as commendam abbot of Montserrat.57

Also, the

Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza found the hermits living peacefully and in good order during their visitation of 1490.58 García Jiménez de Cisneros and the Congregation of Valladolid exercised these rights when examining the hermits after their takeover of the monastic community in July 1493.59 Despite the increasing control of the superior, there were several limits placed on the abbot’s authority to correct and punish the community. In particular, the hermits held the right to appeal decisions made by the abbot. The right to appeal attempted to balance abbatial authority with those under his supervision.60 According to Benedict XIII, the hermits and other members of the community initially had the right to appeal to the motherhouse of Ripoll after Montserrat’s independence.61 This right was a holdover from the community’s previous status as a priory and likely served to mollify the loss of jurisdiction felt by the motherhouse.62 This initial appeal, however, was somewhat of a moot point as Abbot Marc de Vilalba served as the abbot of both monasteries and ended in 1431 with the death of Vilalba.63

57

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r. 58

Visitation report of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza. Montserrat, 7 April 1490. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #48, 76. 59

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 170-171; Bernabé Dalmau, “Les relations entre les moine set les ermites de Montserrat de 1300 à 1500,” Studia monastica 14/1 (1972): 135. 60

Gregory IX, Decretalium compilatio, Lib. 3. Tit. 35. Cap. 8. Canon law supported the role of the brothers in counseling the abbot as found in the Rule of Saint Benedict. See, RB c. 3. 61

Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #2, 90.

62

Baraut, “Benet XIII,” 80.

63

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 251. Baraut, “Documents reials i pontifics,” #25, 150. Idem, “Benet XIII,” #14, 101-103.

46

The hermits could also appeal to other outside authorities. The most immediate source was the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza when it conducted visitations at Montserrat. External visitators provided a source of appeal and airing of grievances against any abbot abusing his office or failing to keep discipline within his community. Such was the case in the 1490 visitation by the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, though here the hermits reported no abuses.64 Furthermore, according to canon law, the hermits also retained the right of appeal to the pope or his legate. The papacy superseded all local abbatial jurisdiction and authority since it had the responsibility to oversee all monastic communities exempt from local episcopal or secular jurisdiction, which Montserrat had acquired through its relationship with Ripoll.65 Control over visitation and correction was no small matter. It did not simply entail the amount or types of penances that could be handed out to the hermits. It allocated the sacramental power found in the rite of penance away from the eremitic community to the priests living in the monastery. Pope Gregory’s privilege, however, created a complex balance between religious oversight and the sacraments of penance administered by priests, whereby the hermits selected their confessors but the monastery held the right to approve their selection. The hermits regained a limited degree of freedom from oversight after losing the privilege under Joan de Aragón. Here, the hermits did acquire the right to seek penance outside the monastery through some form of pilgrimage, though this also ultimately involved the permission of the prior or abbot of 64

Visitation report of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza. Montserrat, 7 April 1490. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #48, 76. 65

Robert C. Figueira, “The Medieval Papal Legate and His Province: Geographical Limits to Jurisdiction,” in The Plenitude of Power. The Doctrines and Exercise of Authority in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Robert Louis Benson, edited by Robert C. Figueira (Aldershote: Ashgate, 2006) 102; Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 59-60; Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 82. “Praeterea, abbates monasteriorum subduntor episcopis, nisi sint exempti. Ergo potestas episcopi est major quam potestas abbatis. Sed monachus tenetur plus obedire abbati quam episcopo.” Thomas Aquinas, Petri Lombardi Sententiarum libri quatuor, edited by Iohannes Aleaume (Paris: Edition Migne, 1841), Lib. 2, dist. 44, ques. 2, art. 3, expos. textus, linea 69.

47

Montserrat.66 Despite its complexity, the balance established during the fourteenth century would endure until the abbacy of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, when the role of confessors in the hermitage would undergo a radical change through the creation of the office of the presidente de los hermitanos: an office that would return a large measure of control over the examination, correction, and punishment of members of the eremitic community held by the prior or abbot.

The Priesthood Providing sacraments for the hermits remained a consistent problem at Montserrat. The hermits had no church and had no abbot who could help with the process of training and ordination. The right to approve their ordination originally fell under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Barcelona. For example, Ugo de Cardona, episcopal vicar under Bishop de Gualba, authorized a hermit, also called Berenguer, to construct an oratory and to celebrate the mass on a portable altar on 28 April 1312.67 Four years later, either the bishop or the bishop’s vicar (it is unclear from Albareda’s citation) granted permission for two ordained hermits to hear each other’s confessions and the confessions of four additional lay hermits at Montserrat.68 In both cases, it is very likely that the hermits originally decided among themselves who would become a priest, with the sole approval of their ordination falling to the rights of the bishop. This policy likely changed under Archbishop Joan de Aragón when the prior gained control over the right to select the confessors among the hermits. There is no way to know when

66

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174.

67

Arxiu Diocesà, Barcelona, Comm., 1311-1314, fol. 18v. Partially edited by Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 12 n. 22. 68

Barcelona, Arxiu Diocesà, Comm., 1311-1314, fol. 18v. Partially edited by Albareda, “Lullisme a Montserrat,” 12 n. 22.

48

this happened for sure. Our sole evidence survives in Bernat Boyl’s records of ordination.69 Bishop Gonzalo, the auxiliary bishop of Barcelona, conferred three successive clerical orders on Boyl in 1481. He became a subdeacon on June 16,70 and a deacon on September 22.71 He was formally ordained as a priest on 22 December 1481.72 In each case, Boyl received these orders with the permission of his abbot (de licentia sui abbatis), though the permission came via the abbot’s current vicar of the monastery, Abbot Gaufredo Sort of Sant Cugat del Vallès (14791508). The abbot’s authority followed the traditional authority also held over the monks in his community. For example, Benet Marimón, a monk of Montserrat, received the clerical rank of subdeacon and deacon with Boyl, while André Sagrera, a benefice holder at Montserrat, received his deaconate alongside Boyl and Marimón.73 This abbatial right did not change during the reforms of Boyl and Peralta.

The hermits informed the Vallisoletano reformers in the

Capitulatión of 1493 that the abbot held what had now become the traditional right to approve the ordination of the hermits when the community needed one of its members to perform the sacraments. 74

69

Boyl already held the legal status of cleric prior to entering Montserrat. He described himself as a cleric of the diocese of Lleida (clericus dioecesis ilerdensis) as early as 1475. Unedited document. Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancelleria, reg. 3415, fols. 100r-100v. Josep M. Prunés, “Nuevos datos y observaciones para la biografía de Fray Bernardo Boyl,” Bollettino ufficiale dell’ordine dei Minimi 49 (2004): 564 n. 26. 70

Fidel Fita, “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos Datos biográficos,” Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 558; Idem, “Fray Bernal Buyl y Cristóbal Colón,” 558-559; Albareda, “Llul·lisme à Montserrat,” 13 n. 27. 71

Fita, “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos Datos biográficos,” 559; Idem, “Fray Bernal Buyl y Cristóbal Colón,” 558-559; Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 13 n. 27; Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 564 n. 26. 72

Fita, “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos Datos biográficos,” 559. Idem, “Fray Bernal Buyl y Cristóbal Colón,” 558-559; Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 13 n. 27; Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 564 n. 26. 73

Fita, “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos Datos biográficos,” 559; Idem, “Fray Bernal Buyl y Cristóbal Colón,” 558-559; Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 13 n. 27; Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 564 n. 26. 74

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 172.

49

Formation The hermits for the most part retained their authority over the religious formation of their novices. Neither the oath of obedience given to the prior after the reforms under Joan de Aragón, nor the prior’s right to approve new monks as seen under Prior Rigalt de Vern, gave the monastery’s superior control over the hermit’s religious formation as he would have over monks joining the monastery. Evidence supporting this conclusion is admittedly very scarce. The most concrete evidence survives in the letter sent by the Infante Joan de Aragón to Prior de Vern in 1379. In this letter, the infante described how Antoni de Verjús had arrived at the hermitage in 1376, three years before the infante’s request that the prior approve de Verjús as a hermit. Upon his arrival, Verjús trained as a novice under the senior hermit Arnau Sanç. Sanç, according to the letter, instructed de Verjús “in the rule and the eremitic life” in preparation for his religious vocation.75 Religious formation thus took place under the tutelage of an experienced solitary already living on the mountain of Montserrat and not in the priory. Evidence from the fifteenth century suggests that religious formation remained in the hands of the hermits. The 1480 confirmation of the constitutions only described how the hermit needed to be proven in the practice of renunciation prior to his profession. The record makes no mention of training in the monastery or profession as a monk before entering the hermitage. Bernat Boyl, despite being the superior of the hermits, never professed as a Benedictine monk while at Montserrat. He only took religious vows in 1492, when he left Montserrat to join the

75

“Segons que cert, con haie. iij. anys que ha estat continuament e perseverat ab frare Arnau Sanç, ermitá, lo qual li ha mostrat la regla e vida ermitana e lo dit frare Anthoni...” Roca, “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó,” 437.

50

Order of Friars Minim.76 Additionally, the 1493 Capitulatión confirmed the non-Benedictine status of the hermits, when the hermits informed the reformers that “they did not make any other vow except obedience to the superior, who presided over this house, or to the one who was in his place.”77 Here obedience retained its original significance with regard to the superior’s right to investigate, correct, and punish lax hermits as it had developed under Archbishop Joan de Aragón and his successors. According to the Capitulatión: The said reverend fathers said that it pleased them and they were content to not impose any other burden regarding a vow that they would have to do, except concerning obedience and subjugation to correct delinquents when they made some fault that was worthy of punishment.78

While the hermits acknowledged the tradition of swearing obedience to the abbot, there was no mention of the Rule of Saint Benedict or preparation in the monastery before becoming a hermit.79 The hermits remained secular religious (whether lay or clerical) and not Benedictine monks trained in the monastery despite the prior’s right to determine who ascended the mountain of Montserrat to end their lives in solitude.80 76

Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 566.

77

“Primeramente, que ellos no fazían otro voto syno de obediencia al superior que en esta casa presydía, o al que en su lugar estoviese, la qual estavan prestos de dar al dicho prior desta casa y al dicho general superior de la horden y a todos sus sucesores.” La capitulatión del prior y monjes, 1:173. 78

“Y a esto los dichos reverendos padres dixeron les plazía y heran contentos de no les ynponer otra carga ninguna de voto que oviesen de hazer, salvo de obediencia y subgeción, para corregir a los delinquentes quando algund delito hizieren que fuese digno de castigo.” La capitulatión del prior y monjes 1:173. 79

Reading itself was an obstacle to formation, as several hermits remained ignorant of Latin and even at times illiterate altogether. On the illiterate (non-Latin reading) hermits, see the documents from the Confraternity of Montserrat from 1415 in Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 243-244 and from 1484 in Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 309-311. This information can also be found in the 1417 constitutions enacted by Abbot Marc de Vilalba. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 246; Gregorio Argaíz, La perla de Cataluña (Madrid: Andrés García, 1677), 92. On literacy in the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, see Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 241-243. 80

Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 12. On the problems of the confusion between the lay and the clerical hermit, see Pierre Doyère, “Ermites,” in Dictionnaire de droit canonique, edited by R. Naz, 7 vols. (Paris: Libraire Letouzey et Ané, 1957), 6: col. 416.

51

The infante’s letter to Prior de Vern revealed a few important between coenobitic and eremitic formation. The document described that a three-year novitiate, two years longer than expected in the Rule of St. Benedict and in the Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza.81 Examples of this three-year period of religious instruction can be found in a unique early monastic rule known as the Rule of the Angel, the Novellae promulgated by the Emperor Justinian (527-565) in 535, and a letter sent by Pope Gregory I (590-604) to a soldier, where the pope suggested that he should be educated in the monastic life for three years before taking the habit (Letter, 8:5).82 Several writers and church councils argued that the novices should spend at least three years in a monastery before becoming hermits.83 This was a common opinion among monastic who argued that education in the cloister ensured the proper preparation for the hermit before he encountered the rigors of the anchoritic life.84 According to the Rule, monks began religious education in a place separate from the main community but within the walls of the monastery. They were instructed by a senior monk

81

RB c. 58: 9-13. Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 216-217. The time of novitiate legislated in monastic constitutions during the Middle Ages was always open to interpretation. Often, qualified candidates were allowed entry with little training. Others of rank were also allowed rapid entry without probation, leading to many complaints by critics as it fostered monastic laxity. Noreen Hunt, Cluny under Saint Hugh, 1049-1109 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967), 86-87 and 92. Boyl himself spent less than three months before becoming a hermit and a little more than a year before becoming superior of the hermits of Montserrat. 82

RB c, 58: 9-16; Fry, RB1980, 440-441; Kardong, Benedict’s Rule, 481.

83

On the councils, see Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: col. 413; P. Rouillard, “Eremitismo: In occidente, condizione di vita,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 3: cols. 1239-1240. 84

“Deinde secundum genus est anachoritarum, id est eremitarum, horum qui non conversationis fervore novicio, sed monasterii probatione diuturna.” RB c.1:3. Hastings, “St. Benedict and the Eremitic Life,” 193 and 196-197; Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: cols. 413-414; Lialine, “Érémitisme,” 4: col. 940. For this practice among the Camadoli, see Jean Leclercq, Un humaniste ermite le bienheureux Paul Giustiniani (1476-1528) (Rome: Edizioni Camaldoli, 1951), 72.

52

well versed in the Rule under the supervision of the abbot.85 The monastery was fundamentally a school, and as such it needed a master to teach its students.86 This education took place over the course of one year, until a monk was competent in understanding the Rule and the Divine Office as stated in the Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza: Novices, according to the constitution of the lord Pope Clement V, are given a master and faithful instructor, who knows how to instruct them as much in the Divine Office as in the observance of the rule; and he should have zeal for their souls, and he should eagerly desire that they be gained for the lord. Those novices are not admitted into the space of the monastery the least bit within the said year, nor are they also to be transferred to another place as it is said in the constitution of lord [Pope] Benedict [XII], unless they are in a large monastery. But when a year has passed, and they have been approved by the order, they should make profession and receive benediction, as it is stated in the Rule.87

This form of monastic education was not required for de Verjus. If the prospective hermit had first been trained as a monk under the prior, the infante would not have needed to petition the prior for his admission: the prior himself would have trained de Verjús in the monastery and, after training, determined his readiness to begin the anchoritic life. De Verjús, on the other hand, followed the traditional practice of eremitic formation by training under an experienced hermit willing to teach him the ascetic practices for those living in 85

RB c. 58:5-10; de Vogüe, The Rule of Saint Benedict, 281 and 284; Kardong, Benedict’s Rule, 467-470; Mayeul de Dreuille, The Rule of Saint Benedict and the Ascetic Traditions from Asia to the West, translated by Mark Hargreaves (Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing, 2000), 269-271; E. Ancilli, “Direzione Spirituale,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 3: cols. 536. 86

De Vogüe, Community and Abbot, 32; Hastings, “St. Benedict and the Eremitic Life,” 193-194; Chevignard, “Formation Spirituelle,” 5: cols. 712-713. 87

“Quibus novitiis, iuxta constituionem domini papae Clementis quinti, magister et fidelis deputetur instructor; quie sciat eos instruere, tam in divinis officiis, quam observantiae regulari; et zelum animarum habeat, easque lucrari domino solliciter cupiat. Qui novitii etiam infra dictum annum, ad comunes tracttus Monaterii minime admittantur; nec etiam, prout continetur in constitutione domini Benedicti, ad alia loca, nisi conventualia fuerint, transmittantur. Sed anno probationis elapso, et per ipsos de ordine approbato, professionem faciant et benedictionem recipiant, ut in Regula continetur.” Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 216-217.

53

solitude.

It began when a disciple sought out an elderly hermit and swore to follow his

instructions in complete obedience.88 Only after several years of training would he be allowed to leave his spiritual father and begin his life in his own cell. This form of education continued through the Middle Ages, as medieval ascetics sought to model their lives on the desert fathers and mothers. Many of the founders of the eremitic orders in the twelfth century began their religious education under seasoned hermits or within a small group of hermits, who had the necessary experience to provide proper religious instruction.89 However, this practice did not become the norm in the Middle Ages largely due to the concerns over heresy and the weight of Benedict’s Rule as a guide to monastic life. The founders of the eremitic orders, such as the Camadoli, Carthusians, and Vallombrosan monks, eventually brought eremitic training into the cloister before the hermit began a second round of training under a seasoned solitary living within the monastery’s enclosure.90 It should be noted here that the vague mention of the Rule in the oath of profession perpetuated the tradition of using the Rule of Saint Benedict as the orthodox guide to religious life, as it had for Berenguer de Palomar. It did not entail training in the Rule within the monastery. If so, the king would not need to advise Prior de Vern about de Verjús’s knowledge of the Rule. De Verjús did not follow the curriculum assigned to the monks, including training in the Divine Office, nor did he experience religious formation as part of a large monastic 88

Irénée Hausherr, Spritual Direction: The Early Christian East, translated by Anthony P. Gythiel, Cistercian Studies Series 116 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1990), 192-208; Ancilli, “Direzione Spirituale,” 3: cols. 531-532; De Vogüe, Abbot and Community, 107; Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius, 71; Chevignard, “Formation Spirituelle,” 5: col. 703; Pierre Doyère, “Érémitisme: Érémitisme en occident,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 4: col. 965. 89

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 29-35.

90

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism,” 87-89; Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius, 18; Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: cols. 414-415.

54

community.

Any similarities between the religious formation in the monastery and the

hermitage involved the use of the Rule of Saint Benedict as the principal book of religious instruction. We should also not assume that the vague mention of the rule in the infante’s letter refers to customs or constitutions particular to the hermits of Montserrat, as argued by Colombás. The reference solely described the use of the Rule as found in Berenguer’s oath of profession. The Rule was written for coenobitic monks, not for hermits.91 We should not underestimate how control over religious formation created authority in a religious community and how the preservation of this right among the hermits separated them from the prior’s authority over one of his own monks. Giving up one’s will through the practice of obedience was the first rule of religious formation. It derived from the belief that the rejection of one’s self-will cultivated humility, which along with the fear of God and the imminent expectation of the Second Coming of Christ, served as the first steps in becoming a monk or hermit.92 The voluntary submission of one’s own will to another accepted the view that the superior acted as Christ in the monastery. In this, the abbot had to be obeyed in all things, just as Christ had obeyed his father.93 According to Adalbert de Vogüe, this view of formation brought its practice to its eschatological term: “If the instruction of the teacher takes the place of the self

91

Hasting’s holds the somewhat strange opinion that Saint Benedict wrote the Rule to be used by hermits from the outset. Hastings, “St. Benedict and the Eremitic Life,” 199-211. 92

Hausherr, Spiritual Direction, 195 and 197; Tillard, “Obéissance,” cols. 557-559.

93

Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 218. Support for this can be found in canon law. “Abbas vero, cui omnes in omnibus reverenter obediant.” Gregory IX, Decretalium compilatio, Lib. 3. Tit. 35. Cap. 6; De Vogüe, Community and Abbot, 112 and 225; Kardong, Benedict’s Rule, 472-474; Hastings, “St. Benedict and the Eremitic Life,” 193; Basil Cole, “Consecrated Obedience and Spirituality,” Angelicum 73 (1996): 572; Aquinata Böckmann, “RB 5: Benedict’s Chapter on Obedience,” American Benedictine Review 109 (1994): 119.

55

will, the devil will have nothing to claim in us on the Day of Judgment and the Lord will be able to reward with glory what he himself will ceaselessly have accomplished in us.”94 If the hermits retained the right to train their own members outside of the monastic community, as I believe they did, they preserved an important level of independence despite their growing relationship with the coenobitic community and the growing authority of the prior over the hermits. Prospective hermits could choose their own instructor from among the experienced hermits, and this instructor could follow his own methods and use his own choice of works in order to provide the proper religious formation to practice the eremitic life at Montserrat. By keeping this separation in religious training, despite the prior’s ability to investigate the quality of the hermit both before and after his profession through the rights of approval and visitation, the hermits retained their traditional independence from the monastery’s authority.

Outside Petitions Petitioning an outside authority remained the principal means by which the hermits could counter the authority of the prior when faced with conflicts over internal religious matters within the eremitic community. We have already seen how the hermits approached the papal legate Cardinal Guy de Boulougne in 1372 due to their dissatisfaction with the confessors assigned to the hermitage by the prior of Montserrat. The hermits used papal authority to circumvent the prior and regain the choice over their confessors through a direct appeal to the legate. The hermits also used petitions to gain privileges for themselves without having to obtain permission from the prior. Benedict XIII, despite granting full jurisdiction to Abbot Marc de Vilalba, accepted petitions made directly to the papacy by the eremitic community. On 5 94

De Vogüe, Community and Abbot, 55, 112-114 and 119.

56

February 1412, for example, the hermits asked the pope for the privilege to wear the scapular as part of their monastic clothing.95 Hermits, ideally, were only permitted to wear a hood, robe, and cord.96 This was a rather extraordinary request in that the scapular, normally reserved for a professed monk, provided the hermits a level of external prestige and symbolism associated with a fully professed religious without having to take solemn vows.97 The lack of any mention of the abbot is odd if he did in fact support their request, since his backing would have given greater weight to the petition. Moreover, any local support would likely have been mentioned in the document as part of the historical summary leading to the enactment of the privilege. The pope in the end granted this request.98 However, he limited the hermits to wearing the scapular solely within the confines of the mountain of Montserrat under threat of excommunication. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) likewise acted in favor of the hermits when he approved the their request to have their chapels provided with a “lampara y puerta foranea” in 1472.99 The small privilege reminds us of the hermits’ continued desire to control their religious space. More to the point, the hermits’ petition, like those of many monastic communities, coincided with conflicts over who held the rights of abbot over the abbey, in this case Sixtus IV’s controversial bestowal of the commendam abbacy on Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere in 1472. The hermits

95

Benedict XIII to the hermits of Montserrat. Peníscola, 5 February 1412. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 241; Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #9, 96. 96

Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: col. 417.

97

This privilege of wearing the scapular without religious vows was a medieval development. It was increasing worn by the laity, such as the hermits, who wished to affiliate themselves with the spiritual benefits of a religious order. Ludovico Saggi, “Scapulaire,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 14: col. 391. 98

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 241; Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #9, 96-97.

99

Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas],” Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 187v.

57

simply took advantage of the disputed election to seek privileges from the pope, who would be eager to find supporters for his nephew’s candidacy from within the community of Montserrat.100 The hermits’ use of outside authorities to settle matters within their community was not limited to the pope or his legates. They likewise appealed to the kings and queens of the Spanish Kingdoms to gain support for their religious lives or to settle disputes within the community.101 We have seen how De Verjús’s relationship with the Infante Joan de Aragón prompted Prior Rigalt Vern to accept his former secretary into the hermitage. Thirty years later, the hermit Pedro de Carrión approached King Martí de Aragón (1356-1410) to settle a conflict over payments within the hermitage. After hearing the hermit’s complaint, he ordered the monk Pere Seguer, the administrator of the priory, to pay ten and a half Aragonese gold florins to the hermit, since the prior’s death had left him without money to pay for a Psalter he had purchased from Helias, another hermit at Montserrat.102 According to the letter, the king acted to preserve justice (de remey de iusticia provehir) in the absence of Prior Vicenç Ribes, who had passed away a few days earlier.103 Queen María de Aragón (1401-1458) likewise involved herself in the affairs of the hermits.104 We do not know the exact rationale behind her involvement, but it seems that the 100

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 295-29; Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 99-

100. 101

Royal intervention at Montserrat had a long history, asthe king desired to assert his plenitude of power within the royal patrimony against the power of the pope. Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 34. 102

King Martí de Aragón to Pere Seguer. Barcelona, 14 January 1409. “Devant nostra maiestat es estat frare P. de Carrion, hermita de les montanyes del dit monastir, supplicant que com ell hagues comanat a frare Vicent de Ribes prior de Muntserrat quondam, .ii. o .iii. jorns abans que passas d esta vida, un saltiri que havia comprat de frare Helias hermita, per preu de .x. florins e mig d or d Arago; e lo dit saltiri no haia pogut cobrar lo dit supplicant per mort del dit prior, deguessem a ell sobre aço de remey de iusticia provehir.” Rubio y Lluch, Documents per l’historia de la cultura catalana, 2: #413, 390. 103

Rubio y Lluch, Documents per l’historia de la cultura catalana, 2: #413, 390.

104

“Y aun dixemos de la Reina Doña María su esposa, que intervino en el xamo de Hermitaños.” Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas],” Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 179r.

58

queen was concerned about donations granted by her and her husband, Alfonso V de Aragón (1396-1458), for the provision of the eremitic community.105 The queen’s actions, like those of King Martí and the Infante Joan de Aragón, showed a willingness to intercede in the internal affairs of the eremitic community that also concerned the monastery. Such mediation continued during the reforms of Montserrat under Bernat Boyl, when King Fernando II responded to complaints from the community regarding the rigor of his reforms.106

Movement The ability to come and go from one’s cell was one of the most cherished rights held by the hermits. We have seen how Berenguer de Palomar vowed to live a life of poverty and chastity, along with a vow of obedience. However, he made no vow of stability that a monk would profess in a monastery as outlined in the Rule of Saint Benedict.107 The newly professed hermit, on the contrary, had episcopal authorization to practice his religious life in an extended geographic area outside of the jurisdictional boundaries of the monastery. Ugo de Cardona, the vicar of Bishop de Gualba, granted a similar privilege to another recluse named Berenguer on 28 April 1312, this time to celebrate the mass on a portable altar outside the confines of Montserrat.108

Both requests show how some hermits followed the practice of wandering

105

Pope Nicholas V to Bishop Jaime Giralt of Barcelona. Rome, 1 April 1446. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 262-263; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #1, 306-307. 106

Antonio de la Torre, “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): 462-463. 107

RB c, 58.17; J. Torres, “Voto,” 10: col. 556; Ambrose Wathan, “Conversatio and Stability in the Rule of Benedict,” Monastic Studies 11 (1975): 1; James McMurry, “Monastic Stability,” Cistercian Studies 1 (1962): 209224; Augustine Roberts, “The Meaning of the Vow of Stability,” Cistercian Studies 7 (1972): 256-269. 108

Barcelona, Arxiu Diocesà, Comm., 1311-1314, fol. 18v. Partially edited in Albareda, “Lul·lisme à Montserrat,” 12 n. 22.

59

ascetics, who could seek alms, preach or perform masses outside their cells under the authority of the bishop.109 The ability to move freely outside the hermitage continued well into the late fourteenth and fifteenth century. Pedro de Carrión left Montserrat without the permission of the prior (who had died) to personally confer with the king (Devant nostra maiestat) regarding a dispute over payments between him and the hermit Helias.110 Benedict XIII’s permission for the hermits to wear the scapular acknowledged their right to leave the hermitage by forbidding them to wear it outside the grounds of the monastery, a decision that likely attempted to forestall confusion about their religious status as secular hermits.111 Moreover, on a few occasions the hermits functioned as emissaries for the monastic community or on behalf of the monarchy. In 1393, the hermits Pere Selva and Miquel served as emissaries of Prior Vicenç de Ribes, a partisan of Pope Urban VI (1378-1389), to King Joan I de Aragón; they handled the king’s attempt to force the prior’s renunciation of his office in favor of Cardinal Jaume de Aragón, who, like the king, was a supporter of Pope Clement VIII (1378-1394) during the Great Schism.112 Fernando II and Isabel I frequently engaged Bernat Boyl on several diplomatic missions between the Catholic Monarchs and the Kings of France during the 1480s and 1490s, thereby continuing his role as a royal

109

Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism, 23-24, 72-73 and 79. Wandering hermits did find some support during the Middle Ages. Richard Rolle remarked that, “It is not so bad for a hermit to change a cell for a legitimate cause, and to return again to his former cell if it is convenient.” Quoted in Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: col. 418. 110

Rubio y Lluch, Documents per l’historia de la cultura catalana, 2: #413, 390.

111

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 241; Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #9, 96-97. On the problem of confusing monastic clothing, see the complaints offered by the reformers of the Congregation of Valladolid. Liber reformationis, 164. 112

Here the permission of the prior came ipso facto as Pere Selva and Fray Miquel served as his emissaries. Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 83-84.

60

ambassador.113 Finally, Fernando II wrote to the Vallisoletano reformers to allow the hermit Mateo Bahya to leave Montserrat to care for the newly established house of the Order of Friars Minim in Barcelona, as Boyl, the founder, departed with Colón to the West Indies.114 By the end of the fifteenth century, the abbot gained a modicum of control over the hermits’ travels. The 1493 Capitulatión recorded how the prior permitted travel as long as it did not demonstrate the hermit’s temptation to be in the world. 115 The hermits, however, expected the abbot’s permission based on custom, which the abbot granted without any real interference in their affairs. According to the hermits, they commonly traveled despite the oath of obedience granted to the abbot. Indeed, the document explains that the hermits often left the mountain to do penance in another place (quería yr a hazer penitencia a otro cabo) or to acquire goods to support their lives at the hermitage (que les es asy guardado para su sustentación).116 The Capitulatión, taken together with the previous evidence, demonstrated the longevity of the freedom of movement among the hermits even as the abbot gained a measure of control over this practice during the fifteenth century. The ability to move freely outside the cloister differed markedly from coenobitic monks. As with the sacrament of penance, the monastic profession of stability had its foundation in the authority granted by the novice to the superior. Through stability, the monk bound himself to the community under the direction of the abbot and the Rule.117 It also warded off the temptations of 113

For a listing of these embassies, see Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 568-574.

114

Fernando II to the Community of Montserrat. Barcelona, 7 June 1493. Fausto Curiel, “Bernardo Boil, único nuevo documento inédito y decisivo,” Revista montserratensia 7 (1914): 150-151. 115

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174.

116

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173-174.

117

Justin McCann, Saint Benedict: The Story of the Man and His Works (Garden City, NY: Image Books 1958), 112. Quotation taken from Wathan, “Conversatio and Stability,” 7.

61

the world outside the cloister and lead to internal peace (stabilitas interioris) in the heart through the regulated life found in the monastery. The Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza (following the Rule) stated how “no monk may go outside his monastery without just cause or special permission.”118 Stability was so crucial that the constitutions quipped that the monk without a cloister passes away “just as a fish without water.”119

This critique stemmed

from the condemnation of the infamous Sarabaites and Gyrovagues in the Rule, whose lack of stability and wandering led to gluttony, the indulgence of their wills, and the exploitation of charity and hospitality offered by other monks. 120 Indeed, the criticism resurfaced during the reforms of the Congregation of Valladolid, when the author of the Liber reformationis lambasted the hermits for their refusal to live within an enclosure under a rule and abbot, thus resembling “Sarabaites rather than hermits (Sarabaites potius quam heremitas).”121 Ironically, the hermits’ lack of stability stood apart from early eremitic practices, which emphasized the permanent residence of a hermit within his cell to avoid the distractions of the world. Exceptions were only

118

“Similiter et qui praesumpserit claustra monasterii egredi vel quocumque ire vel quippiam quamvis parvum sine iussione abbatis facere.” RB c. 67:7. “Quare ut vitam habere possit monachus inhibemus quod, nullus Monachus, sine causa iusta et licentia speciali, extra suum Monasterium vadat.” Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 223. 119

“Sicut piscis sine aqua caret vita, ita monachus sine claustro.” Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 223. This was a common proverb with several small variants in the Middle Ages. It had its origin with the Sayings of the Fathers, being attributed to Saint Anthony. Verba Seniorum, edited by J.P. Migne, in Patrologia latina, 73 (Paris: 1849), col. 858A. This exact quotation comes from Gratian’s Decretum, c.16, q.1, c.8. See Samuel Singer, ed., Thesaurus proverbiorum medii aevi. Lexicon der Sprichwörter des romanischgermanischen Mittelalters, 14 vols. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995-2002), 8: 225-226; Almuth Seebohm, “The Crucified Monk,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 59 (1996): 62-63. 120

RB c. 10-11; Wathan, “Conversatio and Stability,” 32.

121

Liber reformationis, 164. The Liber vagatorum, written circa 1455, likewise complained of the instability of “false hermits.” Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: col. 421.

62

made on those occasions when he visited another hermit to seek counsel, to share in hospitality, or to participate in the Eucharist with pilgrims.122

Provisions and Possessions Customs governing provisions and possessions within the hermitage affected the relationship between the hermits and the superior of Montserrat. Evidence prior to the fifteenth century is scant. Our only information comes from a letter written by King Joan I de Aragón to Prior Vicenç de Ribes on 26 April 1392. The king, after receiving two religious paintings from Antoni de Verjús, asked the prior to equip him and his brethren (companyons) with all their necessities (en lurs necessitats).123 The letter does not cite an existing obligation for the prior to support the hermits with material needs. Colombás argued that the prior’s right to examine and correct hermits and his right to approve prospective hermits became tied to the monastery’s responsibility to materially support the hermits.124 His thesis merits consideration, as it mirrors the increasing influence of the prior during the fourteenth century. If we follow Colombás’s theory, the prior’s responsibility was directly related to the oath of obedience granted to him and his right to examine hermits before and after they joined the community. As the local superior, he provided material support to the eremitic community in conjunction with the responsibilities as spiritual vicar, whose concern it was to free the hermit to engage in the contemplative life in

122

Basilius Steidle, tr., The Rule of Saint Benedict: A New Translation of the Rule and Commentary (Canon City, CO: 1967), 252-254. 123

King Joan I de Aragón to Prior Vicenç Ribes. Barcelona, 26 April 1392. Roca, “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó i del reial patrimoni,” 328; Rubio y Lluch, Documents per l’historia, 2: #341, 329. 124

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 168. Baraut argued that this actually began in the twelfth century, but offered no evidence to support his conclusion. Baraut, Obras completas, 1: 171.

63

solitude without worldly distractions.125 However, the original pact under Abbot Joan d’Aragó did not describe an association between sustenance provided by the prior and obedience by the hermits. If this obligation began at this time, it did so after the initial pact as the prior gained of the increasing responsibilities and jurisdiction over the lives of the hermits at the end of the fourteenth century. Materiel support in exchange for the increasing jurisdiction of the superior of the monastery, however, became part of the constitutional relationship between the monks and hermits after Benedict XIII granted Montserrat its independence from Ripoll. According to Benedict XIII, “the twelve hermits living virtuously on the mountain peaks of the said monastery are to be decently and properly provided with food and clothing.”126 Three years later, the pope confirmed the monastery’s responsibility when he granted the hermits the privilege to wear the scapular.127 In 1446, Nicholas V ordered Bishop Jaime Giralt of Barcelona (1445-1456) to make sure that the hermits (along with the monks) were provided with decent food and clothing out of the portions assigned to them from a royal bequest.128 Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer comfirmed this responsibility when he restored the constitutions of Abbot Vilalba in 1456. Citing Benedict XIII, Abbot Ferrer enumerated each of these obligations in detail. The prior provided the solitaries with clothes, food, candles, wine, bread, oil, salt, and vegetables. He also provided them with a barber, doctor, and surgeon 125

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 168; Dalmau, “Les Relations,” 130.

126

“Ac etiam duodecim heremitis in montibus ipsius monasterii Montiserrati honeste viventibus in victu et vestitu decenter et honeste etiam providere teneatur.” Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 239; Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #2, 89. 127

Baraut, “Benet XIII,” #9, 96.

128

Pope Nicholas V to Bishop Jaime Giralt of Barcelona. Rome, 1 March 1446. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 263-264; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” 300 and #1, 306. Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447) confirmed the original document on 19 November 1446.

64

according to their need.129 The hermits claimed these rights in the 1493 Capitulatión as part of the “ancient agreement and arrangement (concordia y conpusyción antiqua)” for the monastery to provide food, supplies, and support equal to the provisions given to the monks (de lo mismo que el convento comiere).130 The prior or abbot also provided each hermit with personal funds to be used at their discretion. King Joan I de Aragón’s letter to Pere Seguer described how the hermits had the ability to purchase manuscripts with their own money and without the consent of the prior.131 Although the letter did not detail the source of Pedro de Carrión’s funds, the king implied that they were provided by the superior of the monastery.

Fifty years later, Abbot Ferrer’s

constitutions provided each hermit a monthly allowance of eleven solidos and six dinars. 132 These funds could be used for whatever necessities the recluses required. The monthly stipend saw no reduction or cessation through the fifteenth century. The 1493 Capitulatión recorded how each hermit customarily received eleven and one half solidos (honze sueldos y medio) a month.133 These funds could not be held back even when they left the hermitage for a long period of time provided they did so with the permission of the prior.134

129

Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer, 280; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #11, 327. On the provision of candles and other references to food, see Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer, 274; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #11, 319-320. 130

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

131

King Joan I de Aragón to Prior Vicenç Ribes. Barcleona, 26 April 1392. Roca, “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó i del reial patrimoni,” 328; Rubio y Lluch, Documents per l’historia, 2: #341, 329. 132

Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer, 280; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #11, 327.

133

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

134

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173-174.

65

The freedom to maintain personal wealth extended to the right to receive donations from benefactors or friends without the permission of the prior or abbot.135 Two letters from 1286 record donations given by Alfonso III de Aragón (1265-1291) to the hermits of Montserrat. In the first gift, the king provided a pension to an unnamed hermit. The second involved a gift of “vitalicia” (probably clothing and food) to a hermit named Bertran.136 In 1362, Queen Elienor de Aragon (1325-1375) gave the hermit Berenguer Ferrer and two other hermits two gold florins each as part of her patronage to the community.137 Alfonso V de Aragón granted one hundred gold florins to Arnau Carboner in 1420, a hermit who lived at the hermitage of Sant Joan de Montserrat.138 To these instances, we can add Pope Nicholas V’s confirmation of the royal pensions granted by King Alfonso V and Queen María de Aragón, which distinguished between the money given to “the monastery and the hermits.”139 The ability to receive gifts continued after the reform of Bernat Boyl, though not without controversy. Boyl engaged in a lengthy argument against the practice of giving to hermits with his friend Arnau Descós, who had sent

135

Donations, along with manual labor (usually in a garden), provided the traditional source of material support for the hermit. Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: cols. 417-418. 136

Unedited documents cited by Soler as Barcelona, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Reg. 67, fol. 109r and Barcelona, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó Reg. 64, fol. 10r. Soler, Extinción de los ermitaños,” 433 n. 1. Zaragoza i Pascual provided a more complete citation, which I follow here. Zaragoza i Pascual, Els Ermitans, 19 n. 9. Pedro Serra i Postius, Epitome histórico del portentoso santuario y real monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Monserrate (Barcelona: Joseph Giralt, 1747), 19; Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 167; Dalmau, “Les relations,” 128. 137

Joseph Maria Roca, “Documents Històrichs: La devoció de la reyna d’Aragó dona Elienor de Sicilia, a madona Sancta Maria de Montserrat,” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1924): 432. 138

Unedited document cited by Soler as Barcelona, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Reg. 2705, fol. 48. Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 433 n. 1. Zaragoza i Pascual dates the document to 1419 according to the unedited Llibre de fundacions. Montserrat, Arxiu de l’Abadia de Montserrat, Llibre de fundacions, fol. 128r. I follow the dating of Soler based on the premise that the royal record preserves a more accurate date. 139

Nicholas V to Bishop Jaime Giralt of Barcelona. Rome, 1 April 1447. Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #1, 306-307; Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 262-263.

66

cheese, capers, and olives to Boyl from Mallorca to Montserrat.140 Boyl’s complaint did not involve violations of the abbot’s authority, or even his own responsibility as superior of the hermits (he would not want to set a bad example). Rather, he argued that Descós violated the rules of friendship since his friend did not consider Boyl’s religious vocation and his inability to reciprocate in kind according to the laws of friendship. Holding personal wealth contrasted with the rules governing the cloistered monks. The Constitutions of the Congregation of Valladolid stated that no member of the coenobitic community could hold property outside of those in charge of offices within the monastery.141 This extreme prohibition against personal wealth followed the prohibition on personal property found in the Rule of Saint Benedict, which saw personal belongings as an insidious vice that “must be torn up by its roots.”142 Following the general outline of the Rule, monks in the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza found possessing money were punished for three days and forced to give the items to the abbot for the use of the community.143 This likewise extended to the control over gifts: no monk “should presume to give or receive anything without the abbot’s permission, or consider anything personal property, absolutely nothing.”144 The abbot thus controlled the temporal affairs within the monastery to limit the monks’ temptations derived from the possession of wealth as a measure to correct his “spirit of autonomy and trust in the 140

Fidel Fita, “Escritos de Bernal Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): #10, 307-308. 141

Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 218.

142

“Precipue hoc vitium radicitus amputandum est de monasterio.” RB c. 33:1.

143

Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 218. The Rule of Saint Benedict only states that the monk should be punished after being twice warned. “Quod si quisdam huic nequissimo vitio deprehensus fuerit delectari, admonetur semel et iterum; si non emendaverit, correptioni subiaceat.” RB c. 33:7-8. 144

“Ne quis praesumat aliquid dare aut accipere sine iussione abbatis, neque aliquid habere proprium, nullam omnino rem.” RB c. 33:2-3.

67

fatherly care of the abbot.”145 It was an act related to obedience, where the monk relied only on God and the abbot for his maintenance, thus having no need for personal property.146 It was a decision to free the monks from the burden of looking for their daily sustenance, and therefore allow them to concentrate on their lives dedicated to contemplation and unceasing prayer.147 The hermits’ wealth likewise contrasted greatly from the traditions of evangelical poverty associated with the desert fathers, who renounced all possessions to avoid the temptations of the pleasures of the world and indolence in religious life.148

As Abba Poemen summarized,

“Poverty, hardship, austerity, and fasting, such are the instruments of the solitary life.”149 The hermits, in effect, turned the custom of evangelical poverty on its head: they neither assumed the corporate property of a coenobitic religious community under the authority of the abbot, nor did they follow the traditions of the desert by renouncing all their wealth and property. Instead, the hermits mixed the system of community support with the awkward (rather condemned) possession of a personal allowance in order to free themselves from the worry of finding daily sustenance. Ironically, according to the 1493 Capitulatión the personal funds were granted so 145

Georg Holzherr, Die Benedicktusregel: Eine Anleitung zu Christlichem Leben, 2nd ed. (Einsiedeln: Benziger, 1980), 197-200. Quoted in Kardong, Benedict’s Rule¸ 274. “The prohibition of ownership is based on dispossession of self, that is, on the subjugation of the monk to the abbot.” De Vogüe, The Rule of Saint Benedict, 209. In the case of Montserrat, the abbot’s authority over temporal matters was modified in part by requiring the consent of the monks to alienate or purchase property belonging to the community. Moreover, no monk or official was allowed to engage in business on their own. Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 2: 178187. 146

De Vogüe, The Rule of Saint Benedict, 220-221.

147

De Vogüe, Community and Abbot, 127.

148

Lialine, “Érémitisme: Érémitisme en orient,” 940; John Cassian, Institutes, translated by Boniface Ramsey, Ancient Christian Writers 58 (New York: Newman Press, 2000), Inst. 7: 7. 149

Saying number 58 of Abba Poemen. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, translated by Benedicta Ward, Cistercian Studies Series 59 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1975), 147. The Carthusian Saint Romuald repeated a similar maxim to Pietro Dagnino. “Regulam jejundi atque scilendi, at in cellis permanendi.” Cécile Caby, De l’érémitisme rural au monachisme urbain: Les Camaldules en Italie à la fin du moyen âge, Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 35 (Rome: École Français de Rome, 1999), 153.

68

that “they could more peacefully dedicate themselves to God”.150 The negative view toward personal wealth owned by a hermit certainly was the ideal. However, these stipends addressed the problem of wandering beggars, whom the church often associated with late medieval heretical movements that emphasized radical evangelical poverty against the material corruption of the church.151 There were only three limitations placed on the hermits’ possession of money: the amount received from the abbot, the need to gain approval to leave the hermitage to spend their allowance, and the examination of their purchases as to their suitability to their religious vocation. Beyond these limitations, the hermit held complete control over his expenditures. Partial control over provisions weakened the traditional coenobitic association between obedience and the renunciation of property, which in turn reduced the authority of the abbot over their religious lives and fostered independence from the monastic community.

Joint Liturgical Celebrations Finally, it appears that the monastic and eremitic communities engaged in joint liturgical ceremonies and mutual confraternal prayers as part of the growing relationship between the monastery and the hermitage. No information survives prior to the fifteenth century. It is very likely that the legislation enacted under Abbot Marc de Vilalba’s constitutions reflected traditions already practiced at Montserrat. His constitutions reveal how both communities shared in prayers for the dead and the celebrations of certain feast days. For example, Marc de Vilalba outlined the joint participation of the hermits in the rites and ceremonies offered on the death of a 150

“Porque más quietamente pudiesen vacar a Dios” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

151

Doyère, “Ermites,” 6: cols. 417-418.

69

monk, hermit, priest, and donats. Every religious member of Montserrat offered masses and prayers befitting his ordination, profession (monk, priest, hermit, donat), and level of education for those who had died in the community.152 Vilalba also confirmed the annual and weekly liturgical celebrations performed by the monks and hermits upon the death or entrance of members belonging to the Confraternity of Montserrat.153 Again, these celebrations and prayers differed according to their clerical status, profession, and education. Subsequently, Abbot Ferrer set out a calendar of seventeen feast days to be celebrated at the monastery by the entire religious community.154 On these days, the hermits descended from the mountain, joined the liturgical celebrations at the monastery, and ate with the monks in the same refectory. Similarly, Abbot de Peralta confirmed the hermits’ participation in the celebrations and prayers offered on behalf of the confraternity on 25 May 1484.155 In 1493, the hermits informed the Congregation of Valladolid that they customarily descended from the mountains to celebrate major feasts and eat in common.156 These communal prayers and joint liturgical celebrations emphasized the unity of the hermits and the monastic community. The shared activities reflected the emerging spiritual prominence of the monastery as the center for the major religious celebrations, including 152

Montserrat, 27 December 1417. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 246; Argaíz, La perla de Catalunya, 92. These were said in addition to those offered by the congregation. Constitutions of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 171. 153

Montserrat, 10 June 1415. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 243-244; Albareda, Historia de Montserrat, 169-170. 154

Montserrat, 2 April 1456. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 276-277 and 280; Argaíz, La perla de Catalunya, 102; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #11, 327. 155

Montserrat, 25 May 1484. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 309-311. Partially edited in Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #23, 56-57. See also García Colombás, “La confimació de la Confraria de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat per Garsias de Cisneros i els seus monjos,” Analecta montserratensia 10 (1964): 5556. 156

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 175.

70

profession, the liturgy of the dead, and the observance of feast days during the liturgical year. The result was a consolidation of both groups into a single religious community derived from the liturgical routine and based on the coenobitic monastery. This communal routine was based on the eschatological flow of time realized in the interplay of the confraternal prayers for the dead and the celebration of principal feasts in common through the course of the liturgical year. By the end of the fifteenth century, the hermits lived in a liturgical relationship centered on the monastery, and at the center of the monastery stood the figure of the abbot who had control over the constitutions and ceremonials at Montserrat.157

Conclusion I have attempted through the course of this chapter to reconstruct the constitutions or customs used at the hermitage of Montserrat before the reforms of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Bernat Boyl and García Jiménez de Cisneros. I have traced this relationship through the basic issues of religious formation, profession, the performance of sacraments, movement, possessions, correction and oversight, community size, and liturgy. In each case, I have argued that the prior (and later the abbot) slowly gained control over the religious lives of the hermits, first through the formal submission of the hermits to the authority of the prior in the act of obedience, and later through the creation of a local abbot after Montserrat’s emancipation from Ripoll. I have argued that the hermits maintained a level of independence from the abbot derived from their tradition of autonomy despite the increasing authority granted to the superior of the monastery. The hermits maintained this independence primarily through their ability to train 157

Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer, 273; Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda,” #2, 318.

71

future hermits, select confessors, control their property, and petition outside authorities to protect their interests. The end result was a complex relationship between the abbot and the hermits of Montserrat, with the ability of the abbot to correct and punish the hermits for any lapses in their discipline as the main source of contention. The complex problem of jurisdiction, obedience, and correction would become the principal cause of the rebellion against the reforms of Bernat Boyl when he introduced Observantinism at Montserrat. It was a rebellion that stemmed not only from the imposition of Observance, but the abuse of the office of presidente de los hermitaños: a constitutional innovation enacted during the abbacy of Cardinal Guilano de Rovere in 1476. This office, as we shall see, involved the transfer of the rights of investigation, admonishment, and correction from the prior to the new superior of the hermits.

Although designed to restore greater self-

government to the eremitic community, corruption of this office became the source for Fernando II’s reforms at Montserrat before the formal handover of the abbey to Abbot Joan de Peralta in 1484.

Ultimately, the problem was settled through the coercive actions of the king, the

abandonment of several hermits from the mountain, and Bernat Boyl’s translation of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione as a means to overcome the regarding his authority at Montserrat. The same questions of jurisdiction, obedience, and correction at the hermitage of Montserrat resurfaced during the reforms of the Congregation of Valladolid under García Jiménez de Cisneros in 1493. As with the reforms of Bernat Boyl, the hermits reacted against changes to their traditions and religious way of life. This rebellion not only involved the imposition of Observance, but a restructuring of their customs in the creation of a new constitution to govern the hermitage, the complete subjugation of the hermits to the authority of the prior and the congregation, and the requirement that each hermit become a trained 72

Benedictine monk before embarking on a life of solitude. Similar to Boyl’s reforms, the king’s intervention and the abandonment of the mountain by several hermits would help settle the conflict. To compensate for this change, Jiménez de Cisneros also made use of religious books of instruction. In this case, the Vallisoletano followed Boyl’s precedent and chose the work of Isaac of Nineveh as the model for reform at Montserrat.

73

CHAPTER TWO CARDINAL-ABBOT GIULIANO DELLA ROVERE AND THE REFORM OF THE HERMITS OF MONTSERRAT, 1472-1483

Introduction Historians of Montserrat have long understood that the hermits’ resistance to the introduction of Observantinism under Fernando II originated in large part from their defense of the traditional constitutional relationship and spiritual life established between the abbey and the hermitage.1 The defense of these customs undoubtedly provided the major source of friction between the reformers and the hermits. Scholars, however, have overlooked a constitutional reform carried out by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere in 1476 and its ramifications for the ensuing resistance at Montserrat. This resulted in large part from his decision to return greater authority to the hermits at the cost of the abbot by creating the office of the presidente de los hermitaños.2

The new constitutions gave the hermits the right to elect one of their own as

presidente who would serve a one-year term in the role of spiritual vicar, including the right to

1

Antonio de la Torre, “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): 463; Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): 26; García M. Colombás, Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, abad de Montserrat, Studia et documenta 5 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955), 65 n. 41; Idem, “La santa montaña de Montserrat,” in España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos, Analecta legerensia 1 (Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970), 169. 2

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, f. 202r. Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló was the first to note these records. Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, “Els abats montserratins del segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati,” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 164-165 n. 43.

74

correct, admonish, and punish members of the eremitic community.

The transfer of this

authority and jurisdiction from the abbot to the presidente provided a fundamental change in the constitutional balance between the hermits and the superior of the monastery that restored an important level of independence not seen since the early fourteenth century. Although the office restored an important degree of independence from the monastery, ultimately it would undue the independence of the hermits when Fernando II engineered the appointment of Bernat Boyl to the office in early 1481.

Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Abbot of Montserrat Santa Maria de Montserrat stood at a low point in its history when Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere acquired the commendam abbacy on 2 April 1472. It was not a precipitous decline, but developed as a result of the civil wars in Catalunya between 1461 and 1472. The current abbot of the monastery, Antoni Pere Ferrer (d. 1471/2), led the community into its decline. Ironically, he began his tenure by restoring the independence of the traditional conventual life of the community after several years under the direction of the Observantine Abbot Antoni de Avinyó i de Moles (d. 1450), who had adopted the customs of Santa Giustina de Padua. 3 Abbot Ferrer, however, ended his abbacy ignoring the discipline of the community and bankrupting the

3

Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 60; Jaume Colell, “Vingueren a Montserrat monjos de MonteCassino a mitjans del segle XV?” Analecta montserratensia 1 (1917): 193-200; Anselm M. Albareda, “Monjos de Montecassino a Montserrat,” in Casinensia: miscellane di studi Cassinensi, publicati in occasione del XIV centenario della fondazione dell’abadia de Montecassino, 2 vols. (Montecassino: Typographia Casinensii, 1929), 2: 210-216; Cebrià Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda de monjos de Montecassino a Montserrat (1443-1455),” Studia monastica 18 (1975): #8, 311-314; Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523),” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 333-360.

75

monastery by turning the religious house into a fortified bastion against King Juan II de Aragón during the Catalan Civil War (1462-1473).4 Ferrer’s decision to support the rebels and not the king left the monastery without a duly elected superior, and in the end provided the opportunity for Pope Sixtus IV to install CardinalGiuliano della Rovere as abbot in commendam.5 On 19 November 1471, royal forces captured the rebellious abbot, whose own monks accused him of treason before the king.6 Subsequently, Juan II exiled the abbot to Provence, where he was to remain under the care of Duke René d’Anjou (1409-1480), Juan II’s rival in the Catalan Civil War.7 The abbot’s exile was short lived; he drowned when his ship captained by Rafael Anglés sank off the coast of Provence at 4

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 6 and 8; Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 62; Benet Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, (1258-1485), edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 287-92; Ernesto Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació Benedictina Claustral Tarraconense (1215-1835) (Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2004), 67-68; Jaime Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón (1398-1479). Monarquia y revolución en la España del siglo XV (Barcelona: Editorial Teide, 1953), 245, 282, and 334; Alan Ryder, The Wreck of Catalonia: Civil War in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 151-152. Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 2: 270-73. For several discussions of Abbot Pere Ferrer’s embassies to France and Portugal in support of the Catalan cause, see Joseph Calmette, Louis XI, Jean II et la révolution catalane (14611473) (Toulouse: Imprimerie et librairie Édouard Privat, 1903). 5

Ironically, Juan II’s brother, King Alfonso V de Aragón (1396-1458), engineered Abbot Ferrer’s appointment to gain a royal ally in Catalunya. Ernest Zaragoza i Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523),” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 334-335. 6

Abbot Pere Ferrer was captured along with Abbot Antoni Almeny of San Cugat del Vallès and four others. Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 334; Ryder, The Wreck of Catalonia, 213-214; Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació, 68. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 294 n. 328; Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat (1258-1485), by Benet Ribas i Calaf, edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 99; Francina Solosona i Climent, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat després de la guerra civil catalana del segle XV,” in XXVI Assemblea Intercomarcal d’Estudiosos, 2 vols., Miscellània d’Estudis Bagencs 4 (Manresa: Centre d’estudis del Bages, 1985), #2, 191; Josep Maria Sans i Travé, ed., Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya, 6 vols. (Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departement de la Presidència, 1994-), 1: 205; Manuel J. Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil del segle XV: Instituciones, formes de govern i relacions socials i econòmiques (1472-1479), Biblioteca de cultura catalana 46 (Barcelona: Curiel, 1981), 42. 7

The abbot of Montserrat served as canciller and consejero regio in Catalunya on behalf of René d’Anjou from 1469 to 1471. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 292. See also, Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, #10, 120.

76

the end of 1471 or early 1472.8 By the treaty of Pedralbes (16 October 1472), the monastery was in complete financial ruin, with many of its monks dead or dispersed and its buildings damaged.9 According to Argaíz, only six monks, three hermits, two donats, two escolans, and one servant lived at Montserrat in 1470.10 As García Colombás observed, the abbot had left his successor with an enormous task of restoring the monastery to its previous condition.11 Three different parties claimed the right to fill the vacancy caused by the exile and death of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer: the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza, King Juan II de Aragón and the recently elected Pope Sixtus IV. The Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza had the most legitimate claim.

First, the congregation defended the monks’ right as an exempt

community to elect their own abbot from their own in the monastery as stipulated by the Rule of Saint Benedict and the congregation’s constitutions.12 These customs ensured proper election of a superior fully committed to the well-being and good governance of the monastic community;13 The election of a local superior rather than an outside appointment also more likely guaranteed Montserrat’s continued membership in the congregation.

Secondly, one of the principal

8

Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 99; Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 334.

9

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298.

10

Gregorio Argaíz, La perla de Cataluña (Madrid: Andrés García, 1677), 92. Albareda thought that Argaíz overemphasized the situation (usant o abusant una lletra del prior de Montserrat). Albareda, “Intervenció de l’abat Joan de Peralta,” 16. Albareda’s claim is hard to support given the consistent concern to increase the number of monks and hermits living in the community during the reforms under Boyl and Cisneros. 11

“El abad de Montserrat legaba a su sucesor una enorme tarea restaurador.” Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 62. 12

RB1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes, edited by Timothy Fry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1981), 64:1-2 (hereafter cited as RB). 13

Antoni Tobella, ed., “Constituciones de la Congregació de Tarragona i Zaragoza i les diverse recapitulacions de les seves constitucions provincials,” in Catolonia Monastica. Recull de documents i estudis referents a monestirs Catalans, 2 vols. (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1927-1929), 2: 158-159 (hereafter cited as Constitutions of Tarragona i Zaragoza).

77

functions of the congregation included the restoration of the fiscal stability and spiritual discipline of the monastery. The constitutions emphasized the importance of a secure patrimony to ensure monastic stability in order to fulfill the monks’ religious obligations.14 This was no small matter in the case of Montserrat. Like the rest of Catalunya, the entire community suffered the “fury of Mars,” which had ravaged the lands and towns of the principality.15 The Juan II’s interest in Montserrat was as much political as religious, being a major part of his post-war policy to restore the church in the principality.16 The damaged to the lands, buildings and spiritual life of Montserrat was not lost on the king. He remarked in a letter to Ferrando de Talavera in 1474 that the community could not even engage in basic almsgiving, because the war had left the monastery in so much financial distress. Juan II also had practical political concerns.17 He needed to reassert royal authority within a church that had several leaders rebel against the crown.18 The king could little afford another rebellious abbot in the community who would use its resources against the monarchy. This was all the more important given Montserrat’s prominence in secular and religious affairs in Catalunya and its strategic location near Barcelona. Such concerns likely date back to 1459, when the king attempted to

14

“Spiritualia sine temporalibus non possunt diu in hac vita fragili perdurare.” Constitutions of Tarragona i Zaragoza, 178. 15

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 288; Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació, 68.

16

Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 186-193.

17

Juan II de Aragón to Ferrando Talavera. Barcelona, 13 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: 191 n. 4. 18

As an example of Montserrat’s political importance, one can simply look at the continuous nomination of the abbots as presidents of the Generalitat de Catalunya during the fifteenth century. Marc de Vilalba held the office between 1413 and 1416 and again between 1431 and 1434. Antoni de Avinyó i Moles held the office between 1440 and 1443, and Antoni Pere Ferrer between 1458 and 1461. Joan de Peralta held it at the end of his abbacy between 1490 and 1493.

78

“reform” the monastery by handing it over to the Order of the Jeronymite Hermits and removing a community of monks sympathetic to his rebellious son the Infante Carlos de Viana.19 Though the most distant and disconnected from Montserrat, Pope Sixtus IV first took advantage of the abbatial vacancy for his own political purposes. Like other late medieval popes, he saw such vacancies as an opportunity to reward loyal supporters.

Bestowing a

monastery as a benefice in commendam allowed an outside figure (it did not matter if they were a monk, cleric, or layman) to reap the temporal and spiritual rights of the abbot without having to reside at the monastery.20 Granting lucrative benefices to allies supported the pope’s ability to defend the papacy on spiritual and temporal grounds because of his position as the head of the Catholic Church and ruler over the Papal States. Giuliano della Rovere’s appointment as commendam abbot was not surprising given the nature of papal politics at the election of a new pope. The new pope needed supporters quickly to defend his claims to the papal tiara and possessions in the Papal States in the face of accusations of a suspect election on 10 August 1471.21 Choosing family members fulfilled this need.22 For this reason, Sixtus IV immediately made his nephew Giuliano cardinal-bishop of

19

Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 61-62. The political interpretation is my own.

20

On Sixtus IV’s own views of commendam appointments within the larger discussion of benefices, see R. Laprat, “Commende,” in Dictionnaire de droit canonique, edited by R. Naz, 7 vols. (Paris: Libraire Letouzey et Ané, 1957), 3: col. 1055; G. Picasso, “Commenda,” in Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, 10 vols. (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003), 2: 1247-49; Ildefonso Tassi, Ludovico Barbo (1381-1443) (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1952), 29-30; Gregorio Penco, Storia del monachesimo in Italia dalla origini all fine del Medio Evo, Tempi e Figure 31 (Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1961), 324-25. 21

Lorenzo di Fonzo, Sisto IV: Carriera scolastica e integracioni biografiche (1414-1484) (Rome: Edizioni Miscellanea Francescana, 1987), 415-18. 22

Giuliano della Rovere was given the red hat along with his cousin and rival Cardinal-Bishop Pietro Riario of Treviso (1447-1474). For an extended family tree and a discussion of their importance, see di Fonzo, Sisto IV , 50-59 and 423-425; Christine Shaw, Julius II: The Warrior Pope (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1993), 9-12; Ivan Cloulas, Jules II: Le pape terrible (Paris: Fayard, 1990), 14-15 and 17-18. None of these biographies mention Cardinal della Rovere’s relationship with Montserrat.

79

San Pietro in Vincoli on 15 December 1471.23 Cardinal della Rovere needed extensive resources to support the political and military demands of the office, which Sixtus IV was all too eager to facilitate to overcome the precarious situation of his office during the first years of his pontificate.24 In this situation, Montserrat’s vacancy provided the pope with an easy opportunity to add to the growing list of benefices acquired by della Rovere within a year of becoming cardinal.25 Sixtus IV clearly understood the opportunity, though he framed the decision on pastoral grounds since “at present it [the monastery] is bereft of the rule of the abbot.”26 The action, of course, was filled with medieval irony, as it was understood from the beginning that his nephew would never actually go to or live at Montserrat. Sixtus IV’s appointment of his nephew could not come at a better time. Both the congregation and the king remained occupied by the continuation and effects of the Catalan Civil War. King Juan II had yet to defeat the Catalan rebels who did not formally capitulate until 16 October 1472 at Barcelona. At the same time, the congregation found itself reeling from the devastation of the war, including the exile or punishment of abbots who had sided with the rebels alongside Abbot Ferrer.27 These distractions facilitated the pope’s election of his nephew as

23

Di Fonzo, Sisto IV , 418-419; Shaw, Julius II, 8; Cloulas, Jules II, 21.

24

Sixtus IV. Rome, 2 February 1472. [Anselm M. Albareda], “Cronologia dels primers abats de Montserrat, 1409-1493,” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1922): #19, 351; Shaw, Julius II, 17. 25

Shaw, Julius II, 26. For a large, but incomplete, listing of the benefices given to Cardinal della Rovere, see Cloulas, Jules II, 19-21. 26

“Abbatis sit ad praesens regimine destitutum.” “Cronologia dels primers abats,” #19, 351. 27

Sixtus IV.

Rome, 2 February 1472. Albareda,

The congregation roughly split into two equal groups during the war. Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació, 68-69. Abbot Antoni Alemany (d. 1471) of San Cugat de Vallès was captured along with Abbot Pere Ferrer, and likewise died in 1471. Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 334; Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 99 n. 505; Santiago Sobrequés i Vidal and Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó, La guerra civil catalana del segle XV: Estudis sobre la crisi social i econòmica de la baixa edat media, 2 vols., Colleció estudis i documents 20-21 (Barcelona: Edicions 62, S.A., 1973), 2: 226-227.

80

commendam abbot on 2 February 1472.

Sixtus IV made sure to protect his nephew’s

appointment against any challengers to the abbacy; Cardinal della Rovere would govern Montserrat with full legal rights over spiritual and temporal matters backed by the authority of the Apostolic See.28 The new commendam abbot did not immediately concern himself with his benefice. He neglected nominating a procurator until 25 May 1472, when Martin Pedro, a doctor of canon law, became his representative at Montserrat.29 Indeed, the news of the original appointment took almost six months to reach Catalunya, when René de Anjou informed the Consellers of Barcelona about the cardinal’s abbacy in early July.30

This delay, however, became an

opportunity for the king to assert his rights to protect the community and offer his choice as abbot. To legalize his actions, Juan II reduced Montserrat to his obedience on 30 April 1472 and justified the seizure of the abbey on account of Abbot Pere Ferrer’s treason against the crown. Having taken control, the king appointed Prior Matheo de la Penya as the vicar over the spiritual affairs of the community.31 At the same time, Juan II charged Captain Joan Pere Ferrer i Destorrent with the temporal administration of the monastery.32 Ferrer i Destorrent was peculiar appointment. He was the nephew of the arch-rebel Abbot Ferrer and captained the Catalan army against the king throughout the war.33 This appointment had advantages for the king. On the

28

Albareda, “Cronologia dels primers abats, #19, 351; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’abat Joan de Peralta,” 8; Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 99. 29

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 295.

30

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 295 n. 334.

31

Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 336; Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 13.

32

Olesa, 6 June 1472. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 295-296.

33

Joan Pere Ferrer i Destorrent was the lord of Mataró, governor of Roselló, and cabdill of the Principality of Catalunya. In 1467, his uncle Abbot Ferrer charged him with the protection of the environs of Montserrat. By

81

one hand, the position demonstrated the king’s mercy as part of the general amnesty offered to those who acknowledged his sovereign authority over the principality; Ferrer i Destorrent, initially a rebel like his uncle, changed his allegiance to the king in 1471. On the other hand, his choice placed a person familiar with Montserrat in charge of the abbey’s estates. The king’s attempt to secure Montserrat under royal control was short lived.

By

November, Martin Pedro, the cardinal’s procurator, arrived at Montserrat to assert the cardinal’s rights over the abbey and hermitage.34

The procurator first selected a local vicar for the

monastery, namely Abbot Llorenç Marull of Santa Cecilia de Montserrat.35 Marull’s nomination was a local concession, as the abbot of Santa Cecilia had formally been a monk at Montserrat.36 At the same time, Santa Cecilia was a member of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza.37 His appointment provoked no resistance from the monks or the hermits. By November 8, Abbot Marull began acting as vicar of the community when he confirmed the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat in the presence of “all the monks, priest, hermits, and donats.”38 Furthermore, Martin Pedro, alongside Prior Matheo Penya and Pere de Clariana, the advocate 1468, the Diputació de la Generalitat confirmed the captaincy of Montserrat and Perpinyà on Pere Ferrer. He held onto this title as late as 1474, when it became clear that Cardinal della Rovere would gain control over the abbey despite the actions of the king. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 296 n. 335; Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 11; Sobrequés i Vidal and Sobrequés i Callicó, La guerra civil catalana del segle XV, 1: 248; Ryder, The Wreck of Catalonia, 171 and 211-212. 34

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298.

35

Marull became abbot of Santa Maria d’Amer in 1483, which coincided with Joan de Peralta’s takeover of Montserrat. Enrique Flórez, Manuel Risco, Antolín Merino, et alia eds., España sagrada. Theatro geographicohistorico de la iglesia de España. Origen divisiones, y limites de todas sus provincias. Antiguedad, traslaciones, y estado antiguo, y presente de sus sillas, con varias dissertaciones criticas, 51 vols. (Madrid, A. Marin and M.F. Rodriguez, 1754-1879), 45: 163 (hereafter cited as Flórez, España sagrada). 36

Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 63 n. 28.

37

Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació, 70 and 404.

38

“Capitularment convocats e congregats tots los monjos, capellans, hermitans, e donats del dit monestir.” Confirmation of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat. Montserrat, 8 November 1472. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298.

82

and assessor of Montserrat, witnessed a charter concerning the lands of Joan Almirall in November.39 Subsequently, Joan Faner, a public notary in Barcelona and the escribano of Montserrat, formally Abbot Marull as vicar and Martin Pedro as procurator at Barcelona on 1 December 1472.40 The new procurator did not limit his actions to the monastic community. He very likely facilitated the papal privilege granting the hermits the right to have their chapels provided “con lampara y puerta foranea” in late 1472.41 Here the hermits clearly took advantage of the procurator’s presence, reminding us how a small request provided the hermits with an opportunity to exercise power over their religious lives by directly petitioning the papacy rather than going through the monastery. This petition had a double purpose as it provided support for Cardinal della Rovere while gaining a privilege for the community.42 In both cases, the privilege established a relationship between the cardinal and the hermits leading to the creation of the office of the presidente de los hermitaños four years later. The cardinal’s abbacy, despite the choice of a local vicar, created increasing tension between the Catalan congregation and Sixtus IV. By early 1473, the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza began contesting Cardinal della Rovere’s appointment as commendam abbot, likely rejecting the pope’s right to fill a vacant abbacy given Montserrat’s membership to the

39

Olesa, 24 November 1472. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298.

40

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298; Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 176v. 41

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 187v. 42

Sixtus IV. Rome, 2 February 1472. Albareda, “Cronologia dels primers abats,” #19, 351; Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 295-96; Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 99-100.

83

congregation.43 Sixtus IV reacted quickly and harshly against his critics.44 On 1 May 1473, he issued an unequivocal letter outlining Cardinal della Rovere’s rights as abbot.45 The letter reaffirmed the cardinal’s complete authority over all spiritual and temporal matters and asserted that the abbey remained immediately subject to the pope. Additionally, Sixtus IV defined specific rights not included in the original letter of appointment. According to the pope, the cardinal held full jurisdiction, sovereignty, lordship, power of visitation, and correction without interference as long as he possessed the office of abbot (quamdiu commenda huiusmodi duraverit). Any efforts obstructing the cardinal and his vicar would lead to the immediate excommunication of the individual monks, secular officials and episcopal authorities in addition to an interdict placed over the entire congregation.46 The malcontents needed to accept the authority of the keeper of the keys to heaven as much as the granter of the keys to the monastery. King Juan II saw the conflict between the congregation and the pope as an opportunity to reassert his interest in the affairs of Montserrat. Initially, the king did not question Sixtus IV’s choice of abbot after news of the election reached him sometime in late June or early July. He made no effort to prevent the cardinal from claiming his abbacy upon the arrival of Martin Pedro in the fall of 1472 and the replacement of his chose vicar with Abbot Marull. There were clear political reasons behind his decision. Juan II’s still needed the pope’s political support at the end

43

Sixtus IV. Rome, 2 February 1472. Albareda, “Cronologia dels primers abats,” #19, 351.

44

Sixtus IV also rejected the end of commendam abbacies throughout Aragón. For example, Himbert de Laon, the abbot of Morimond and Citeaux (1462-1466), failed to convince the pope to end all commendam abbacies within the Cistercian Order in the Kingdoms of Aragón. Sobrequés i Vidal and Sobrequés i Callicó, La guerra civil catalana del segle XV, 2: 225. 45

Sixtus IV. Rome, 1 May 1473. Partially edited copy in Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #6, 48. 46

Sixtus IV. Rome, 1 May 1473. Partially edited copy in Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #6, 48.

84

of the civil war.47 The fact that Sixtus IV’s letters from May did not name the king suggests that Juan II remained on the sidelines until he had the opportunity to reassert his authority. By the summer of 1494, the king felt secure enough in his position to step into the contest while the conflict between the papacy and the Catalan congregation continued to simmer.48 On August 13, Juan II ordered Don Ferrando de Talavera to restore the rents of the Castle of Rocamora (Argençola) to Montserrat according to the terms of the Treaty of Pedralbes. 49 The king based his demands not only on the need to uphold the treaty, but also to secure sufficient financial resources to provide basic alms for the poor and the pilgrims to Montserrat.50 On the same day, however, the king reminded Abbot Llorenç Marull, the prior, the monks, and the procurator of the monastery to destroy Montserrat’s fortifications above the monastery since “those living in the castle throw rocks and boulders from the mountain” damaging the church. 51 The king acted not simply to protect the monastery, which had “come to so much poverty and

47

Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 330.

48

Peréz Vassa recorded how Juan II ordered the Infante Enrique de Aragón (1445-1522), Duke of Segorbe and lloctenient of Catalunya, to mediate the quarrel between the congregation and the monastery in 1473; this is possible. However, Infante Enrique de Aragón was not lloctenient at this time. It was Juan II’s daughter, la Infanta Joana de Aragón (1454-1517). Peréz suggests that this document should be dated to 1483, a timetable with which I agree. See notes in the marginalia in Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789 ],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 176v. The Infante Enrique de Aragón, known as the “Fortunate,” was the son of Juan II’s bastard son, the Infante Enrique de Aragón, duke of Villena (1400-1445). 49

Juan II de Aragón to Ferrando Talavera. Barcelona, 13 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: #1, 191; Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 301. Royal concern over the finances of Montserrat extended to the Kingdoms of Castilla and León. On 21 April 1473, Queen Isabel de Castilla y León, in conjunction with Fernando II, intervened on behalf of Montserrat concerning a censal owed to the monastery in Tarrega. Isabel I to Prior Matheo de Penya. Talamanca, 21 April 1473. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 300; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #5, 47-48. 50

Juan II de Aragón to Ferrando Talavera. Barcelona, 13 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: #1, 191; Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 301. 51

“Los qui en lo castell staven, per anujar los del dit Monestir, lansant pedres e roques per la muntanya abisaben e destruhien la dita slgésia.” Juan II de Aragón to Abbot Llorenç Marull of Santa Cecilia de Montserrat. Barcelona, 13 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: #2, 191-92.

85

destitution on account of the war.”52 He did so to assert his authority as the head of the realm over both church and state matters. Juan II therefore ordered procurator and vicar to complete his request through their obedience to the king (nostra obediençia) while at the same time claiming that he acted legally due to the lack of an abbot (carente pastore). This last statement was an open attack on the cardinal’s authority at Montserrat. It emboldened him to order the monks to carry out his demands without the interference of future abbots regardless of their rank in the church. On August 18, Juan II again challenged the authority of the cardinal’s new procurator (an unknown person of Portuguese origin), who attempted to acquire the Castle of Marro that the king had ordered destroyed after the war.53 The king ordered Abbot Marull not to comply with the procurator’s actions, since according to the king he had exceeded his authority as procurator.54 Here, the king acknowledged the cardinal’s possession of the abbacy and Abbot Marull and his procurator’s administration of the community. However, the procurator’s actions went against the king’s authority to secure the realm after the Treaty of Pedralbes. Juan II clearly sensed a threat to the crown and a challenge to his authority to handle certain affairs at Montserrat after he reduced the monastery to his obedience at the end of the war. Allowing the castle to remain intact opened the future possibility that the fortification would again serve as a bastion of local power if the civil war resumed. 52

“Per la occasio de la guerra és venguda a molta dimunució e probresa.” Juan II de Aragón to Abbot Llorenç Marull of Santa Cecilia de Montserrat. Barcelona, 13 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: #2, 191-92. 53

The letter from Captain Pere Ferrer i Destorrent revealed the cost of seven hundred Barcelonan pounds. Juan II de Aragón to Abbot Llorenç Marull of Santa Cecilia de Montserrat. Barcelona, 18 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: #2, 192. 54

Juan II de Aragón to Abbot Llorenç Marull of Santa Cecilia de Montserrat. Barcelona, 13 August 1474. Solosona i Clement, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” 2: #2, 192.

86

The procurator continued to act against royal interests in 1474 and 1475. As a result, the Aragonese monarch began openly challenging Cardinal della Rovere’s legitimacy as abbot. Sometime during the first half of 1475, the king informed the papacy that his own candidate, Bernat de Margarit, then commendam abbot of Sant Pere de Rodes, had been nominated as abbot prior to Cardinal della Rovere, and thus had the lawful right to claim the abbacy.55 Again, politics were in the forefront of the king’s decision. Bernat de Margarit was the relative of Bishop Joan Margarit i Pau of Elna, a powerful churchman in Catalunya who steadfastly supported the king during the Catalan Civil War.56 Juan II claimed he promised the abbacy to de Margarit because of his backing during the war (he actually sided with the rebels until August 1471), and therefore asked the pope to rescind the appointment of Cardinal della Rovere in favor of the abbot of Sant Pere de Rodes in the interests of the crown.57 Abbot de Margarit’s candidacy attempted to curtail the procurator’s recent attempts to maintain and purchase castles for the monastery, a move that threatened the king’s decision to remove local fortifications that could be used in any future rebellions. The opposition, however, went beyond the concerns of Montserrat. Juan II currently engaged in a heated dispute over the election of the archbishop of Zaragoza, which king wanted for Alfonso de Aragón (1470-1520), the illegitimate son of Fernando II and Aldonza Roig de Ivorra i Alemany.58 By creating a false, 55

Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 100.

56

Bernat Margarit was the son of Joan Margarit, el Jove. He was the royal secretary of Alfonso V de Aragón in Italy. In 1468 he served as the titular captain of Gerona. He received the abbacy of San Pere de Rodes on 25 May 1472. He served in parliament, and was a member of several royal commissions in 1474. Ryder, Wreck of Catalonia, 211-212; Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 182-84. 57

Unedited document Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancellaria, Reg. 3393, fols. 118v-122r. See Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 101 n. 509. 58

John Edwards, The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs 1474-1520 (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 2000), 200201. Aldonza was the daughter of Pedro Roig and Aldonza de Ivorra i Alemany. Alfonso de Aragón also served as Archbishop of Valencia after 1512. He became archbishop at the age of 8 and was only ordained in 1501.

87

but advantageous, dispute with the papacy over the abbacy the king ensured that the pope would have to settle in one way or another to provide compensation for either candidate.59 In so doing, Juan II conveniently placed himself as the person best suited to resolve the dispute in a no-lose situation.60 If the king removed his demands over the abbacy of Montserrat, he would gain a second benefice to reward Abbot Bernart de Margarit or the archbishopric for Alfonso de Aragón. If he succeeded at Montserrat, he gained a loyal servant near the always rebellious city of Barcelona. In the end, the king accepted the first solution. He magnanimously suggested that the abbot of Rodes be given a comparable appointment in exchange for abandoning his claim to the abbacy. His ploy succeeded more than he expected. Abbot de Margarit relinquished his claim to the abbacy and was officially appointed first to the benefice of the bishopric of Cefalú and then to Catània, all the while holding onto his commendam abbacy of Rodes.61 In exchange, Juan II confirmed Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere’s claim to the abbey of Montserrat on 13 August 1475. The king’s confirmation, in conjunction with Sixtus IV’s letters in support of Cardinal della Rovere in 1473, solidified the abbot’s full jurisdiction over the entire religious community. As a consequence, the abbot, vicar, and king could begin the restoration and reform of the religious life at Montserrat, including the constitution of the hermits.

59

Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 182.

60

Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 101.

61

Margarit was made abbot on 18 August 1475, however, he did not take possession until 1477. Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, 101 n. 511; Sans i Travé, Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya, 1: 229; Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 183. Cardinal della Rovere did not control Catània at this time. He had acquired the see on 13 July 1473, but resigned it the following year.

88

The Early Reforms Under Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere Cardinal della Rovere, despite his reputation for being a lavish spendthrift and having an unquenchable appetite for expensive military ventures, did not shirk his responsibility to restore Montserrat to its conditions prior to the civil war. The role of commendam abbot as reformer was uncommon but not unheard of during the later Middle Ages. Popes, kings and bishops at times encouraged commendam appointments to facilitate reform, as in the case of the Observantine Benedictine reformer Abbot Ludovico Barbo (1331-1443) at Santa Giustina de Padua and Cardinal Abbot Juan de Torquemada (1388-1468) at the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco.62 Reform certainly did not inspire Sixtus IV’s decision to place his nephew in charge of Montserrat. However, Cardinal della Rovere, or more accurately his local procurators and vicars, took this reform seriously after solidifying his hold over the community in 1475. Much of the reform took place on a local level to be sure. His perpetual absence from the monastery and the lack of personal letters to the community in the extant evidence suggests more political assistance than actual direction supporting the reform through the bulls and privileges issued by his uncle Pope Sixtus IV on behalf of Montserrat. Economic matters became the reformers’ initial concern. Abbot Llorenç Marull, for instance, ordered a new accounting of all the estates and financial obligations owed to the community.63

Juan II, for his part, engaged several alms collectors (baciners) to solicit

donations in Aragón and France to support the monks and hermits.64

The king’s actions

62

Tassi, Ludovico Barbo, 37; Penco, Storia del monachesimo in Italia, 327 and 339-40; Barry Collet, Italian Benedictine Scholars and the Reformation: The Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 1-2. 63

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 301.

64

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 301; Juan II. Montserrat, 8 October 1475. Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, #13, 124-125.

89

provided crucial support for these early reforms. On 8 October 1475, he granted royal protection to all of Montserrat’s land holdings and material possessions.65 Four days earlier, the king requested Sixtus IV to grant a special indulgence to support the restoration of Montserrat, whose purchasers reaped the spiritual merits of pilgrimage as if it were made during a jubilee year.66 The king made his request through Nicolò Franco (1425-1499), legate of Sixtus IV and current procurator of Cardinal della Rovere.67 It succeeded. On December 10, Franco commanded bishops of Aragón to preach the indulgence. 68 Economic recovery via indulgences continued into the next year when Sixtus IV granted all penitents, who donated alms and visited Montserrat from January to the feast of the resurrection, remission of sins as if in a jubilee year.69 The pope instructed Nicolò Franco to announce the indulgence on behalf of Montserrat.70 The sale of indulgences did not come without problems. In 1476, Juan II wrote to the Infanta Juana de Aragón (1454-1517), his daughter and current lloctenient of Catalunya, 65

Juan II. Montserrat, 8 October 1475. Altés i Aguiló, introduction to Annals de Montserrat, #12, 123-124; Peláez, Catalunya després de la guerra civil, 192. 66

Justo Fernández Alonso, ed., Legaciones y nunciaturas en España de 1466 a 1521, Monumenta Hispaniae Vaticana 2 (Rome: Instituto Español de Historia Eclesiástica, 1963), #110, 186. 67

Nicolò Franco was legate from 1475-1478. He was a canon of Treviso and later archpriest of the Cathedral of Padua during his tenure as legate. Franco continued to serve as a secretary of Giuliano della Rovere in Rome as late as 1483. Fernández Alonso, Legaciones y nunciaturas, XXX; Idem, “Nuncios, colectores, y legados pontificios de España de 1474-1492,” Hispania sacra 10 (1957): 7-27; Ippolito Antonio Menniti, “Franco, Nicolò,” in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 67 vols. (Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 1960-), 50: 197-198. 68

Nicolò Franco. Montserrat, 10 December 1475. Baraut, “Documents reials i pontificis,” #34, 155-57; Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 306-308. On the preaching of the indulgence, see Nicolò Franco. Montserrat, 10 December 1475; Baraut, “Documents reials i pontificis,” #35, 158-59; Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 3089; Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 63 n. 28. 69

Sixtus IV. Rome, 15 February 1476. Fernández Alonso, Legaciones y nunciaturas en España, #110, 185-186. The spiritual merit of alms as a real pilgrimage was granted to handicapped people or the infirm who could not travel to the monastery. Sixtus IV. Rome, 15 February 1476. Fernández Alonso, Legaciones y nunciaturas en España, #111, 187. 70

The account books of Nicolò Franco covering the years of 1475-1479 provide evidence for his involvement in the dissemination of these indulgences during this period. Fernández Alonso, Legaciones y nunciaturas en España, #155, 361-62.

90

concerning certain irregularities shortly after their initial proclamation.71 On the one hand, the king’s concern originated from the traditional problems that resulted from too much competition with other indulgences being sold within the peninsula. On the other hand, the king later worried that the pope and the cardinal increasingly used these funds outside of their original intention. In response, the king prohibited the money collected in the Kingdoms of Aragón from being sent to Rome.72 Nevertheless, the money led to the restoration of the economic situation at Montserrat and contributed to the the construction of the two-storied gothic cloister bearing the heraldic device of Cardinal della Rovere.73 The community also used the money to restore the church and other buildings that had been damaged during the civil war. Despite the king’s worries, the cardinal’s building program at Montserrat demonstrated his interest in restoring the abbey rather than simply pillaging the community for its financial resources. The necessity for financial reform went hand-in-hand with the reestablishment of the religious life of the monastic and eremitic community to its pre-war conditions. The initial concern, like that of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer in 1456, involved reconfirming the constitutions. As early as 1472, Abbot Marull confirmed the statutes of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat, reaffirming the prayers and devotions regularized between the laity and the monks and hermits.74 Two years later, Abbot Marull asked Pope Sixtus IV to confirm the ceremonials 71

Juan II to Infanta Juana de Aragón. Estella, 19 July 1476. Solosona i Climent, “Uns documents sobre Montserrat,” #4, 192-93. 72

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 179r. 73

Anselm M. Albareda, Història de Montserrat (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1931; reprint, Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1998), 64-65. 74

“Capitularment convocats e congregats tots los monjos, capellans, hermitans, e donats del dit monestir...” Confirmation of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat. Montserrat, 8 November 1472. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298.

91

and constitutions of Abbot Marc de Vilalba as the basis of religious life for the monks and hermits.75 Confirming the statutes had an important effect on stabilizing the religious life of the monastery. Rather than immediately altering the customs, the confirmation provided stability by perpetuating the organization and religious practices of the monastery and hermitage. Concern over religious practices did not appear until 1476 when the cardinal and the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza argued over who had the jurisdiction to perform a visitation correct the spiritual life at Montserrat.76 On 10 April 1476, two visitators of the congregation, Nicolau de Llor, abbot of Sant Pere de Galligans, and Francesc Sacosta, sacristan of Santa Maria d’Amer, arrived at Montserrat and claimed the right of visitation based on the congregation’s constitutions.77 The cardinal’s local vicar, Abbot Marull, rejected their authority and showed them the bull of exemption issued by Sixtus IV at the gate of the monastery. 78 Doubtful of the authenticity of the bull, Abbot de Llor and Francesc Sacosta took a copy of the document to Gregori Molgosa, a doctor of canon law. Molgosa authenticated Sixtus IV’s document and warned the visitators that any attempt to enter the monastery would lead to their excommunication.79 The entire episode had a comedic air, as Abbot Marull currently held one of the two offices of president of the congregation.80 The visitators subsequently left the monastery and informed the congregation of the situation. The congregation, as in the earlier dispute over the abbacy, insisted on their rights 75

Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 298.

76

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 9.

77

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #7, 49.

78

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #7, 49.

79

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #7, 49.

80

Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació, 70 and 404.

92

despite the risk of excommunication. The general chapter gathered at Calatayud and wrote to Abbot Marull on May 3, asking him to convince the cardinal to drop his claims to exemption so that the congregation could carry out its visitation.81 The cardinal again rejected their demands. He simply did not have to submit to the jurisdiction, visitation, and correction of the congregation given his rights as commendam abbot.82 The congregation found its position radically altered from the past, when all local customs and ceremonials of member monasteries had to correspond to those outlined in their constitutions. With the cardinal’s election, however, the abbey and the abbot became truly independent. The cardinal alone had complete liberty to change the customs and ceremonials without the interference of the congregation.

The Presidente de los Hermitaños Whether to offset the claims of the congregation or to rub their noses into their plans by carrying out the intended reforms, Cardinal della Rovere ordered his new procurator, Francisco Ortiz, a canon of Toledo, to visit Montserrat on a special commission to reform the monastery.83 Unfortunately, our only evidence of Ortiz’s visitation is a brief summary of the reform by Miguel

81

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #8, 49-50.

82

Sixtus IV. Rome, 1 May 1473. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #6, 48. The bishop of Vic did not possess episcopal visitation rights over Montserrat by virtue of the monastery’s exemptions dating back to its status as a priory under Ripoll. 83

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 179r; Idem, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r. Francisco Ortiz also served as papal nuncio and collector between 1474 and 1482. Fernández Alonso, Legaciones y nunciaturas en España, xxx. Idem, “Nuncios, colectores, y legados pontificios,” 31-4.

93

Pérez Vassa in 1789.84 Pérez Vassa’s source came from the lost record book of Joan Faner, who served as the long-term escribano of Montserrat.85 According to recorded fragments of Faner’s record book, Ortiz’s visitation led to the enactment of new statutes organizing the life of the community, which, if we can trust Pérez Vassa’s description, came under the rubric of the “Reform and Visitation of Montserrat (Reformatio et visitatio montis-serrati)”. Ortiz approved thirteen statutes that addressed concerns in both the coenobitic and eremitic community. Unfortunately, Pérez Vassa did not transcribe nor list the contents of these statutes. Of the thirteen mentioned, he only recorded five titles: on the cloistered life, on hospitality, on accounts payable and receivable, on hermits, and on donats.86 The range of the statutes showed a comprehensive interest in the constitutional reform of the religious community. Of the five statutes, Pérez Vassa only described the statute on hermits (sobre Hermitaños) in any detail. At no point in his summary did Pérez Vassa explain why he paid attention to this one section of the constitutions. His interest perhaps derived from the novelty of the changes instituted by the reformers.87

Unfortunately, his description only consists of one succinct

84

Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 179r. 85

“[marginal notation] Se halla original en el Caj.n 4 leg.o 4 este Documento, que yo hallé barajado en el manual de [Joan] Faner notario].” Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 179r. 86

“Las de 1476, intituladas Reformatio et Visitatio Montis-serrati, hechas (son 13 estatuos), con precepto, y Censura todos, dignos de atención, sobre la Clausura (de que entonces no hacian devoto, como nosotros) sobre hospitalitas, sobre la Cuenta de reciuo, y gasta: sobre Hermitanos, Donados etc...” Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 179r. 87

“Mando con precepto de Santa Obediencia...” Idem, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r.

94

sentence.88 According to Pérez Vassa, the hermits chose a president from one of their brethren (se señale uno de ellos para Presidente). Once the choice was made, the president served a oneyear term in office (solo un año dure su Presidentia). During this time, the president had responsibility over the spiritual discipline of the hermits. He judged and handed out punishment of faults that he believed merited correction (que iure departe delas culpas que pidan Castigo). Pérez Vassa, despite his statement that the statute was “worthy of attention (dignos de atención),” offered no other information on the office. The office of the president of the hermits fundamentally changed the constitutional relationship between the abbot and the eremitic community, most recently legislated by Marc de Vilalba in 1409. First, the new constitutions gave the hermits the right to choose their own immediate superior. Previously, the hermits had no role in the election of the abbot, who, as the superior of both communities, was only elected by the monks or the pope in the case of a commendam abbacy. Second, the 1476 constitutions limited the office to one of their own brethren, thus establishing further independence from the monastic community. Furthermore, permanent tenure for the monastery’s superior was replaced by a system of election that fixed the term of office to one year. Finally, the abbot’s authority to correct the eremitic community became the immediate prerogative of the president of the hermits. The abbot still held absolute jurisdiction over both the monastery and the hermitage. However, the immediate day-to-day supervision of the hermits’ religious practices now fell to their president.

Henceforth, the

hermits of Montserrat annually elected their own superior from a member of the hermitage that

88

“La anterior (también apuntada) hecha para el nuncio Ortiz año 1476, mando con precepto de Santa Obediencia, que a los Hermitaños se les señale uno de ellos para Presidente, que jure darparte delas culpas que pidan Castigo, y que solo un año dure su Presidentia.” Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Hermitaños de Monserrate],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 202r.

95

held the right to carry out the responsibilities of investigating, correcting, and punishing the eremitic community with little interference from the abbot of the monastery. The president was only limited if he had not been ordained a priest, since he would need to seek one from within the hermitage or the monastery to perform the sacrament of penance. The president of the hermits restored to a large degree the traditional independence held by the hermits from the superior of the monastery. As discussed in Chapter One, the hermits originally oversaw their own spiritual discipline, as seen in Bishop Pons de Gualba’s (d. 1344) decision to grant two hermits the right to hear confessions among themselves and four other hermits in 1316.89 This independence roughly ended in 1330, when Archbishop Joan de Aragón (1301-1334) usurped their rights by forcing the hermits to give an oath of obedience granting him and his successors the right to investigate and punish the eremitic community. The hermits attempted to restore their independence during the priorate of Rigalt de Vern (1375-1384), when Pope Gregory XI (1370-1378) granted the hermits the right to select their own confessors from among the coenobitic monastery.90 Gregory XI’s decision only nominally restored the hermits’ independence, since the prior continued to hold the right to accept or reject their choice of confessor. This constitutional situation continued through the fifteenth century after Montserrat became an independent abbey. The constitutions of 1476, however, went beyond Gregory XI’s privilege. In this one act, Francisco Ortiz, with the consent of Cardinal della Rovere and the approval of Sixtus IV, largely reestablished the hermits’ responsibility over their own spiritual discipline, if in the end the abbot still had full jurisdiction over the hermitage. 89

Anselm M. Albareda, “Lul·lisme a Montserrat al segle XVè. L’ermità Bernat Boil,” Estudios lulianos 9 (1965): 12 n. 22. 90

Cardinal Guy de Boulougne, bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina, to the hermits of Montserrat. Barcelona, 10 July 1372. Baraut, “Documents reials i pontificis,” #4, 142-43.

96

Cardinal della Rovere’s reforms were not unique in Europe. The new constitutions appeared during a period when the eremitic branches of the religious orders attempted to liberate themselves from the more conventual forms of monastic life. An emphasis on the traditional desert practices of solitude, silence, austerity and unceasing prayer reemerged as the proper way of life of a hermit.91 The new, reformed hermits found it necessary to remove their hermitages from any authority of a coenobitic life monastery, since a traditional monastery had become associated with too many entanglements in the world rather than existing as a place to devote oneself to God. As argued by the Camaldolese reformer Paolo Giustiniani (1476-1528), freeing hermits from the monastery “liberates (le libére)” the recluse to practice his unique form of religious life.92 These late medieval reformers thus promulgated new customs supporting the return to the ancient practices of the early hermits living in the solitude of the desert.93

91

Jean Leclercq, Un humaniste ermite le bienheureux Paul Giustiniani (1476-1528) (Rome: Edizioni Camaldoli, 1951), 137; Placido Lugano, La Congregazione Camaldolese degli Eremiti di Montecorona dalle origini al nostri tempi con una introduzione sulla vita eremitica prima e dopo San Romualdo, 2nd ed., Monografie di storia benedettina 1 (Frascati: Sacro Eremo Tuscolano, 1908), 80-81; Paolo Giustiniano, Regola della vita eremitica, translated by Aldo Visentin (Seregno: Abbazia San Benedetto, 1996), 8; [Alejandro Recio, Diosdado Merino, Fidel de Lejarza, and Ángel Uribe], Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia en España: Las reformas en los siglos XIV y XV. Número extraordinario de la revista con ocasión del V Centenario de San Pedro Regalado (1456-1956), Archivo Ibero-Americano 17 (Madrid: Juan Bravo, 1958), 104 (hereafter cited as Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia); Luis Carrión González, Historia documentada del Convento Domus Dei de la Aguilera (Madrid: Editorial Ibérica, 1930), 116-17; Bert Roest, Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent, Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 117 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 15153; Duncan Nimmo, Reform and Division in the Medieval Franciscan Order from Saint Francis to the Foundation of the Capuchins, Biliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina 33 (Rome: Capuchin Historical Institute, 1987), 498 and 507-8; José García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia: La reforma de las órdenes religiosas en los siglos XV y XVI,” in Historia de la iglesia de España, 5 vols., Biblioteca de autores cristianos (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1980), 3/1: 242-43; Mariano Acebal Lujan “Pierre Regalado,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 12/2 col. 1658. 92

Leclercq, Un humaniste ermite, 137; Giustiniano, Regola della vita eremitica, 8. Roest, Franciscan Literature, 151-152; Lugano, La Congregazione Camaldolese, 78 and 83; Cécile Caby, De l’érémitisme rural au monachisme urbain: Les Camaldules en Italie à la fin du moyen âge, Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 35 (Rome: École Français de Rome, 1999), 78. 93

Leclercq, Un humaniste ermite, 97; García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia,” 3/1: 242-43; Caby, De l’érémitisme rural, 788; Lugano, La Congregazione, 78 and 83; Isabella Gagliardi, “L’eremo nell’anima i gesuati nel quattrocento,” in Eremites de France et d’Italie (XIe-XVe siècle), edited by André Vauchez, Collection de l’École

97

We can see the influence of these contemporary reforms on the development of the president of the hermits when we compare the office to other constitutional reforms during the fifteenth century. In particular, the Franciscan Order in the Spanish Kingdoms provided the most likely source for the innovations at Montserrat. For example, the limited tenure of the superior, the election of the superior by the community and the restriction that the superior be from among the hermits became a central concern of the reformed Franciscan eremitic movement. The term limit by itself was not new to the Mendicants, but it received particular attention in the fifteenth century.94 In Murviedro (Valencia), the foundation charter of the Ermita de Sant Esperit de la Muntanya composed by Francesc Eixmenis (1327/1322-1409) stated that the superior (guardían) was elected for a three-year term by its own members and not by the Franciscan provincial hierarchy.95 The charter also stated that the superior be a member of the priory and not from another Franciscan house in order to prevent the placement of conventual Franciscans as leaders of their community. Most importantly, the election by itself confirmed the new superior; no additional approval was needed from the Franciscan provincial leadership of Aragón.96

Français de Rome 313 (Rome: École Français de Rome, 1999), 447. Roest argued that “most” of the early Franciscan eremitic movements in France and the Spanish Kingdoms “did not produce separate series of constitutions.” However, he also notes that the successors of Pedro de Villacreces (d. 1422), namely Pedro Regalado (1390-1356) and Lope de Salazar y Salinas (1393-1463) created constitutions for the original foundations of Abrojo and La Aguilera distinct from those of the Conventual branch of the Franciscan Order. Roest, Franciscan Literature, 151-52. 94

David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), 50 and 61. 95

Queen Maria de Luna de Aragón (b. circa 1358-1406), the wife of King Martí de Aragón (1356-1410), provided the necessary financial support for the foundation of the priory in a charter issued on 31 January 1402, which Benedict XIII (a relative of Queen Maria) approved on 16 August 1402. Benedict XIII issued the governing privileges of the monastery in the bull of foundation issued on 13 August 1403. Pope Martin V (1417-1431) approved the constitutions of they house on 6 December 1419. Joaquín Sanchis Aleventosa, Sant Espíritu del Monte: Historia del real monasterio (Valencia: Semana Gráfica, S.A., 1948), 25-27. 96

Sanchis Aleventosa, Sant Espíritu del Monte, 26-27, 29, and Appendix B, 216-219; Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 104; Nimmo, Reform and Division, 558; García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia,” 3/1: 239. This reform was also adopted by the Hermitage of Camaldoli. “Gle eremiti potessero da sè eleggere di tre

98

Sant Esperit de la Muntanya extended these reforms to new foundations in Catalunya and Castilla. For example, the Ermita de Segorbe, founded by Bernardo de Escariola, guardian of Sant Esperit de la Muntanya, and his friend Bartolomé Borrás, a master of theology, adopted the constitutions of Eixmenis’s original foundation.97 In Castilla, the eremitic Franciscan Pedro Regalado (1390-1456), who followed the views of his superior Pedro de Villacreces (d. 1422), organized similar constitutional rules to govern the election of the superior, which, like Montserrat, held the title of presidente.98 Like Eixmenis, Regalado adopted a triennial election in the houses of Abrojo and La Aguilera and likewise stipulated that the superior be a member of their own community with the power to oversee the spiritual life of the brothers.99 Annual elections, not just triennial elections, also took place in other Franciscan communities in Castilla y León and in France. The Franciscan founders of the hermitage of San Francisco del Monte (Sevilla), Juan de Cetina and Pedro de Dueñas, stipulated that the members of the community elect the guardian from among their brethren for a one-year term, which could not be renewed in succession.100 In 1492, the Colletine sister and reformer Catherine Rufiné

in tre anni il loro priore, che fosse eremita e stesse nell’eremo, facendo la vita che fanno gli altri: che questo priorato dell’eremo fosse diverso dal grado de lgeneralato, acciò potesse l’eremo esser governato nelle cose spirituali con quiete ed accrescimiento di quei che l’abativano.” Lugano, La Congregazione Camaldolese, 78. 97

Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 112-113.

98

“Memoriale religionis o breve memorial de los oficios activos y contemplativos de la religión de los frailes menores,” in Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 687 (hereafter cited as Memoriale religionis). 99

Nimmo, Reform and Division, 567; John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968; reprint 1998), 379. 100

Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 129. The influence of the Third Order of Franciscans is difficult to determine. Chapter Ten of the older and rarer Memoriale propositi (1221) left the issue open to interpretation: “Let everyone on whom the office of minister (minister) or other offices here mentioned fall, accept and faithfully perform them, though anyone may vacate the office after a year.” Chapter Fifteen of the Rule of 1289 legislated by Pope Nicholas IV (1288-1292) also left the term of the office open ended. “Also, let everyone on whom the ministerial or other offices mentioned in the contents of this present document are imposed, undertake them devoutly and take care to exercise them faithfully. Let each office be limited to a definite period of time and let no minister be installed for life, but let his ministry extend over a definite time.” Robert M. Stewart, “De illis qui

99

recorded how the small Observantine community of Mirebeau (Touraine) elected their guardian and other officers on an annual basis.101 The guardian in these two cases was likely confirmed by the provincial chapter, as was not the case at Montserrat or at Sant Esperit de la Muntanya. The Franciscan eremitic movement also showed similar concern over the right to selfcorrection. Like Montserrat, they associated this right with the freedom of election and the election of candidates from their own community. The foundation bulls for the community of Sant Esperit de la Muntanya and Segorbe, for instance, gave the friars the right to examine and correct their own members, while rejecting outside visitations by the provincials except in cases of serious faults or an overall collapse of discipline in the community.102 At Sant Miquel de la Muntanya, the guardian held substantial powers of punishment and correction over his brothers, including the right to absolve the brothers with the same authority as the provincial chapter. 103 In Castilla y León, Villacreces originally wanted complete separation of his houses from the Franciscan Observants and Conventuals, but later relented, choosing to remain nominally under the jurisdiction of the provincial chapter for maintenance of spiritual discipline.104 This did not, however, lead him to abandon the principal of separating his reformed order from the conventual

faciunt penitentiam.” the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order: Origins, Development, Interpretation (Rome: Instituto Storico dei Cappuccini, 1991), 384. 101

Strictly speaking, Mirebeau was a traditional Observantine house and not an eremitic based reform like that of Villacreces and his followers. Nimmo, Reform and Division, 525 and 558; Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order, 380-381. 102

García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia,” 3/1: 239; Nimmo, Reform and Division, 525 and 558; Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 105; Sanchis Aleventosa, Sant Espíritu del Monte, 28. 103

Nimmo, Reform and Division, 559; Introducción a los orígenes de la observancia, 104-5 and 112-13.

104

Introducción a los orígenes de la observancia, 583. They were able to do this despite owing obedience to the provincial chapter. Carrión González, Historia documentada del Convento Domus Dei, 89, 133-135 and 154155.

100

Franciscans.105 They reconciled their dilemma by legislating that the provincial-general served as nothing more than a figurehead to maintain unity in the order, while granting full authority to correct the discipline of the hermits to the local superior.106 This nominal acknowledgment of the provincial authority resembled the situation at Montserrat, where the president recognized the full spiritual authority of the abbot, while at the same time reserving the rights to administer correction within the community on a regular basis. Late medieval eremitic communities fostered the medieval ideal that hermits needed to live in some form of semi-eremitic community under a rule as much as they desired to return to the original practices of the desert. These constitutional norms were put in place to at least in theory cultivate the desire for solitude and freedom from an abbot. The rotating office of superior, for example, balanced the responsibility for taking care of the material support of the hermitage with desire to dedicate one’s life to solitude and contemplation. Annual election therefore encouraged fraternity and charity, since each superior needed to minister to the material and spiritual needs of his brothers.

As Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) wrote in his Rule for

Hermitages, “The sons [i.e., those in solitude], however, may periodically assume the role of the mothers [i.e., those chosen to administer to the community], taking turns for a time as they have

105

García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia,” 3/1: 243; Carrión González, Historia documentada del Convento Domus Dei, 155; Manuel de Castro “Lope de Salazar y Salinas,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera and J. de Guibert, 17 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995), 9: col. 994. 106

“Rotulus Fratris Petri de Villacreces,” in Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 656 and commentary on 641-642. One of Pedro de Villacreces’s successors, Lope de Salazar y Salinas, did not even mention the authority of the provincial chapter in his Testamento, a semi-constitutional writing describing practices to be carried out in the community after his death. Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia, 584. Additionally, the Villacrecian reformers emphasized the role of the superior as priest in hearing confessions, which was correlated to their insistence on the weekly practice of the examination of faults and their punishment conducted by the superior in the weekly chapter, or whenever he felt it necessary. Memoriale religionis, 688-89; Acebal Lujan “Pierre Regalado,” 12/2: col. 1658; Roest, Franciscan Literature, 153.

101

mutually decided.”107 Annual election therefore emphasized the equality of hermits as a group of brothers living in common according to the apostolic life and Christian charity. The role of fraternity and mutual responsibility in exercising the office meshed well with the role of the superior in correcting his brethren. On the one hand, it ensured that the person examining and correcting the hermits understood their way of life; it also reaffirmed the importance of fraternal correction as a discipline of humility and charity. On the other hand, the annually elected superior from within the community ensured that no one hermit gained absolute control over the hermitage. This avoided the dangers of a monarchical “abbot,” where tyranny could become vested in the life-long holding of the office. As the contemporary Camaldolese reformer Paolo Giustiniani noted, the maior (a type of sub-prior who governed in the prior’s absence) at the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli should be elected on an annual basis “so that the eremitic way of life may retain a republican and not a monarchical form” of organization.108 This emphasis on individuality and equality of the hermits was a particular feature of their 107

Francis of Assisi, “A Rule for Hermitages,” in Francis of Assisi: Early documents, edited by Regis J. Armstrong, J.A. Wayne Hellmann, and William J. Short, 3 vols. (New York : New City Press, 1999-2001). 1: 61-62. 108

“De priore seu maiore eremi eligendo Prior siue maior eremi ante omnia singulis annis eligendus est: vt...non monarchie sed reipublice potius formam eremitica retineat conversatio. Eligatur a diffinitoribus capituli generalis camaldulensis congregationis, ...ea in eligendo forma seruata que seruari solet in cenobitarum abbatum et priorum electionibus.” Placido Lugano, “De tipografo Bresciano Bartolomeo de Zanettis al servizio di Camaldoli e della ‘Regula Vita Eremitice’ stampata a Fontebuono nel 1520,” Bibliofilia 14 (1912-1913): 287. There is a very loose parallel between Montserrat and the constitutions of the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli. At Camaldoli, a “prior” or “maior” led the community for a period of one year from within the eremitic community. He was more powerful than the president of hermits at Montserrat, having the rank of “sub-prior” over the community (the superior at Camaldoli was not called an abbot but prior) with the full spiritual and temporal authority of the prior in his absence. He also governed the affairs of the monastery of Fontebuono, which was founded by the hermits to support the eremitic community (an important reversal of the situation at Montserrat). However, the hermits did not elect the maior, but by the diffinitors of the Congregation Camaldoli of Saint Michele de Murano, of which it was a member. As the prior of Camaldoli was the prior-general of the congregation (elected on a three year basis after 1513), the congregation needed to be sure of his second since he was the next person in the chain of authority in the congregation. Caby, De l’érémitisme rural au monachisme urbain, 163-64; Lugano, La Congregazione Camaldolese, 83-85. The hermits initially had the right to elect the maior before to the formation of the congregation. See the Consuetudines Gerardi Prioris Camuldensis enacted in 1278. Iohanne-Benedicto Mittarelli and Anselmo Costadoni, eds., Annales Camaldulenses ordinis Sancti Benedicti quibus plura interseruntur tum ceteras italico-monasticas res, tum historiam Ecclesiasticam remque diplomaticam illustrantia, 9 vols. (Venice: Prostant apud Jo. Baptistam Pasquali, 1755-1773), 6: 225 and 238.

102

vocation, depending as it did on radical solitude and the lack of any rank within the community. According to Duncan Nimmo, if the constitutional provisions combined freedom of election, fixed terms of offices, and self-correction, the reform of daily life for the individual community became autonomous from outside intrusion, whether from the provincial leadership, as the case of the Franciscans, or from the abbot and his deputies in the case of Montserrat.109

Conclusion The office of presidente de los hermitaños at Montserrat responded to the contemporary quest for autonomous action in the daily spiritual life of the hermit, unconstrained by the practices of the monastery and its superior. It sprang from the general concern for the reform of eremitic communities in the later Middle Ages, where rules formed a necessary part of the religious life. We should not underestimate the importance of independence within the church as a guiding principal of late medieval reform. However, it is often forgotten that independence, no matter how limited, comes at a cost when combined with constitutional government.

At

Montserrat, the president of the hermits did not return the community to its full independence as a loosely gathered group of ascetics living on the mountain of Montserrat as it had been before the priorate of Archbishop Joan de Aragón. Instead, the hermits found themselves with a new official superior who could constitutionally carry out the right to correct and punish members of the community for perceived lapses in discipline during his tenure in office.

109

Nimmo, Reform and Division, 559.

103

As Giustiniani noted in his Regula eremitice vite, such offices in eremitic communities were open to abuse and could lead to the election of a tyrant within the community.110 Certainly, at Montserrat the president of the hermit’s authority was not absolute; safeguards existed that would hinder any long-term authoritarian acts. At the end of every term, an abusive president could be voted out of office and never restored since his election came from within the community. Furthermore, the president still functioned within the jurisdiction of the abbot, or his procurator or vicar-general as the case may be. The hermits could appeal directly to the abbot, the vicar, or in an extreme case, to the pope. In such a situation, the discretion of the president became the criteria of the appeal as much as the complaint of the hermit. However, constitutional safeguards were only as strong as those who could defend the rights contained in the document. If the system of election was nullified, if the avenue of appeals ceased to exist, or if the abbot granted sole authority to the president as to his vicar-general, then the discretion and intent of the president became the rule of the community. The republic of hermits could take on monarchical characteristics. Such seems to be the case when the Aragonese King Fernando II arranged for his former secretary and newly professed hermit Bernat Boyl to become the president of the hermits at Montserrat.

110

The community of Mirebeau failed to elect their own guardian one year because they saw the office as a threat to their humility. The decision led to the installation of an outside friar, who proceeded to despoil the community. Nimmo, Reform and Division, 525. At Camaldoli, the prior-general appointed Abbot Basilio of San Felice, an ally of Archbishop Giuliano de Medici (1478-1534) as vicar over the Holy Hermitage rather than allowing the election from one of the community. The archbishop proceeded to pillage the hermitage, which became nothing more than a convenient financial source for his political and military activities. Leclercq, Un humaniste ermite, 79; Lugano, La Congregazione Camaldolese, 77.

104

CHAPTER THREE FERNANDO II DE ARAGÓN, BERNAT BOYL AND THE REFORM OF THE HERMITS OF MONTSERRAT, 1479-1484

Introduction In the spring of 1479, soon after the death of his father King Juan II de Aragón (14581479), Fernando II, also known by the more common name Fernando V de Castilla y León, took up his father’s plan to reform the monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat. His reform agenda had three basic objectives: first, to remove the commendam abbot Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II (1503-1513), and install a new abbot willing to carry out the king’s desired reforms; second, to restore the economic resources of the community so that living conditions conducive for a proper religious life could be maintained; third, to introduce the principals of Benedictine Observantinism, an austere interpretation of the Rule of Saint Benedict that emphasized silence, mental prayer, poverty, solitude, and the recitation of the Divine Office. Rare was the case that reformers like Fernando II encountered enthusiasm for reform among monastic communities, despite royal and ecclesiastical support to improve the quality of monastic life in the church. It is hard to imagine, however, that Fernando II foresaw a rebellion against his reforms by a small group of solitaries dwelling on the mountain of Montserrat.

105

Fernando II and the Reform of Montserrat Fernando II outlined his early policy for his reforms in two letters sent to Rome in May 1479: one to Cardinal della Rovere and the other to Cardinal-Bishop Rodrigo Borja of Barcelona, the future Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503). The king’s policy differed littlefrom that of his father. He asked the cardinal to renounce the abbey in favor of Abbot Joan de Peralta of La Grotta (d. 1505), the brother of the king’s treasurer, in order to return Montserrat to an abbot loyal to the crown. The cardinal would in exchange receive either the Abbey of La Grotta (then in possession of Joan de Peralta) or a pension in compensation.1 Cardinal della Rovere would also convince his uncle Sixtus IV to change the commendam status of the abbacy to an exempt abbey in titulum free from papal control.2 Cardinal de Borja, the vice-chancellor of the curia, for his part would negotiate with Cardinal della Rovere and the pope on behalf of the crown.3 Finances remained a central concern. Like his father, Fernando understood that a local abbot more likely ensured that the monastery’s holdings would remain in the community to support the pilgrims, monks and hermits.4 For this reason, the king increasingly tied the desire for a resident abbot with his efforts to restore the community’s estates. On 19 June 1481, for example, Fernando II informed Joan Pi, the king’s representative in Rome, how Montserrat

1

Fernando II to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. Cáceres, 19 May 1479. Antonio de la Torre, “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): #2, 467; Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): #9, 50. 2

Fernando II to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. Cáceres, 19 May 1479. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #2, 467; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #9, 50. 3

Fernando II to Vice-chancellor Cardinal-Bishop Rodrigo Borja of Barcelona. Cáceres, 19 May 1479. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 447-448 and #3, 467-468; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #10, 50-51. 4

José García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia: La reforma de las órdenes religiosas en los siglos XV y XVI,” in Historia de la iglesia de España, 5 vols., Biblioteca de autores cristianos (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1980), 3/1: 235.

106

suffered from the lack of a local abbot and how the presence of his favorite Joan de Peralta would serve the interests of the house.5 In 1482, the king wrote to the Infante Enrique de Aragón y Pimentel (1445-1522), duke of Segorbe and lloctenient of Catalunya,6 that the commendam abbot had drained the monastery of the funds needed to ensure a well-ordered community.7 Four months later, the king reminded the infante that these financial concerns needed to be handled by a resident abbot and not by a secular official, otherwise it would be impossible to responsibly administer the house.8 Through 1483, the king remained concerned over the finances and informed the infante that “We greatly desire the reform and good government of the said monastery be realized as it fulfills the service to Nostra Dona, and as seen in the information and said memorandum, we command you to write to the cardinal that he place the administration in the power of some devout religious, as you wrote to us.”9 Even after he assumed the abbacy, Abbot de Peralta received a letter from the king reminding him that the “restoration and 5

Fernando II to Joan Pi. Barcelona, 19 June 1481. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #5, 470; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #11, 52; Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 178r. Joan de Peralta was a deacon of the Cathedral of Agrigento (Girgenti, Sicily), and abbot of the Basilian monastery of Santa Maria la Grotta (diocese of Agrigento). He was the brother of Guillem de Peralta, the king’s treasurer, counsel to the king and viceroy of Sicily and Sardinia. Joan de Peralta became abbot of Montserat in 1483, and served as president de la Generalitat de Catalunya from 1490-1493. He became bishop of Vic in 1493, and died there in 1505. 6

Enrique was the only son of the Infante Enrique de Aragón (1400-1445) (the son of King Fernando I de Aragón) and Beatriz de Pimentel. He served as count of Ampurias (1458-1522) and Segorbe (1458-1469), later duke of Segorbe (1469-1489) and lloctenient de Catalunya. 7

Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Córdoba, 5 September 1482. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #7, 472; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #15, 54. 8

Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Madrid, 2 January 1483. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #18, 55; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 12 n. j and k. Albareda does not number his footnotes in this article but rather uses letters of the alphabet. When he runs out of letters, he begins the alphabet again adding an apostrophe after the letter, e.g. (a’). 9

“Desseamos sumamente el redreço y buen regimiento del dicho monasterio se faga como cumple el seruitio de Nuestra Señora e visto la information e memorial susodicho, mandamos escreuir al Cardenal de [en blanco] ponga el regimiento en poder de algun deuoto religioso, segund nos screuis.” Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Madrid, 11 February 1483. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #8, 472; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #19, 55.

107

reformation (redreç et reformacio)” of the community remained a central responsibility of the newly independent abbot.10 The cardinal, however, remained unmoved. Four years of difficult negotiations would follow until he relinquished his abbacy. Fernando II, owing to his impatience, began the reform despite the cardinal’s continued possession of the monastery.

He understood the issues of jurisdiction and how no reform could

take place without the permission of the cardinal. “It does not seem to us to be within our power,” he informed the Infante Enrique, “because this is the responsibility of the cardinal who possesses the abbey.”11

The problem, as the king knew, was legal. The cardinal and his

administrators could claim papal exemption to forestall all royal actions as had occurred in the 1470s when the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza questioned the cardinal’s authority. Fernando therefore needed to convince the cardinal to place the king’s men as administrators in the monastery until Joan de Peralta became abbot and put the king’s reforms into place. Fernando’s efforts succeeded in part as Cardinal della Rovere surprisingly agreed to the monarch’s request despite his refusal to renounce the abbacy. Fernando II quickly moved to install several royal officials to begin the reform. Those chosen ranged from the hightest members of the court through members of the royal family: The Infante Enrique de Aragón, duke of Segorbe and lloctenient de Catalunya, who took on the full responsibility of carrying out the reform in the absence of the king; Guillem de Peralta (d. 1484), the king’s treasurer, viceroy of Sardinia, and brother to Joan de Peralta, who had the task of

10

“Nos som informats, per lo vostre majordom, de la gana e deuocio vos teniu en lo redreç e reformacio de aquexa sancta casa de Montserrat...” Fernando II to Abbot Joan de Peralta of Montserrat. Córdoba, 18 August 1484. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #11, 473; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #24, 57. 11

“Nos parece no es en facultad nuestra porque esto es a cargo del cardenal que el dicho abadiado possee.” Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient. Madrid, 2 January 1483. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #18, 55.

108

reforming the finances of the monastery;12 Abbot Guafred Sors of Sant Cugat del Vallès (14791508), who became the cardinal’s vicar-general and representative to the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza;13 and Bernat Boyl, royal secretary, ambassador, commissar general, and newly professed hermit, who had the initial responsibility of instituting Observantinism within the hermitage and the monastery. The king’s hopes for a quick reform, however, were quickly dampened. Though the economic changes were accepted, the religious reforms met with little enthusiam among the hermits and the monks. As one would expect, restoring the estates and the financial stability of the community provoked little resitance. On 13 August 1481, the king informed the community that Guillem de Peralta (with the assistance of his auditor Joan Perí) would serve as the financial administrator of the monastery with the approval of the cardinal.14 He also ordered the monks and hermits to obey

12

Guillem de Peralta served as the royal treasurer from the death of Juan II to 1 June 1483. He held the fortress of Castell de Sant Esteve de Castellet from 1472. During this time he served as viceroy of Sicily in 1475. On 1 November 1481, a few months after his appointment as administrator of Montserrat, Fernando II named de Peralta consejero real. He later served as viceroy of Sardinia from 14 April 1484, where he died six months later on November 14. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 448 n. 4. 13

Guafred Sors became abbot of Sant Cugat in 1472 after the death of Antoni Almeny, who was arrested along with Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer in 1471 as a collaborator with the rebels against Juan II de Aragón during the Catalan Civil War. Jaime Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón (1398-1479). Monarquia y revolución en la España del siglo XV (Barcelona: Editorial Teide, 1953), 334; Alan Ryder, The Wreck of Catalonia: Civil War in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 213-214; Ernesto Zaragoza i Pascual, Història de la Congregació Benedictina Claustral Tarraconense (1215-1835) (Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2004), 68. 14

“Carta (compulsada) del Católico a los monges, dice: “perla gran deuocio que tenem en la bendita Verge Maria de Montserrate habem procurat que en aquixa Casa haia Abat, que fará residencia personal en lo Reverendo Cardenal que de presente la dita Abadia (+) ha estat content de complaurenos. Y mientrasse perfecciona este negocio, dice, que el Cardenal procura a los Magnificis Guillen de Peralta, y a son Auditor Joan Perí: y manda el Rey, que les obedezcan, e ne faran lo Contrari, que aixo sera per lo benefici de aqueix casa, e no faran lo Contrari, per quant nostra gracia habeu...” Fernando II to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 13 August 1481. Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 177v. The original is lost. Caresmar offered a slightly different and more incomplete transcription than Pérez Vassa. “Encarregam y manamvos, justa la voluntat de dit R. Cardenal, obeiscaue, segons tenor de les sues provisions, car aco sera lo Benefici de aquiex Montestir, y servey nostre; y no fasats lo contrari, per quant nostra gracia haveu cara.” Jayme Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” Analecta montserratensia 2 (1918): 348; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 10; de la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 451-452.

109

Guillem de Peralta and not to hinder his efforts. The community by and large fulfilled the king’s wishes. The only recorded dispute occurred in the fall of 1482, when the community refused to open their cash boxes without the customary presence of witnesses and notaries. 15 The infante’s arrival at Montserrat in October settled their concerns.16 What reservations the community had disappeared when the adminstrators settled their debts and provided additional provisions for the community.17 These actions encouraged Montserrat to support the king, especially since Fernando II tied restoring the finances with the eventual removal of the commendam abbot and the end of the secular administration of the monastery.18 Fernando likewise entrusted the religious reforms to high positioned members of court. The most important was Bernat Boyl, the king’s secretary who professed as a hermit at La Santa Trindat de Montserrat in the fall of 1480 or early 1481. Boyl was a logical choice for the king. Born in Zaidín (Lleida), he served at the court in several capacities for two decades prior to his conversion, having been first appointed by Juan II as a public notary (notarium publicum) in the

15

“El mismo Ynfante, y el año mismo de 1482, Carta en que ofrece Volver, presto; y celebra el que no sian obertas las Caxas, sino en la manera acostumada, por que en tot sia ben regida la Casa. Miguel Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fols. 176v-177r. Pérez Vassa only provided the year and not the date (an unfortunate habit on his part). The visit to Montserrat by the Infante Enrique in September or October 1482 provides the most likely solution to the dating of the event. The problems likely began with the visitation of the monastery in August. 16

Fernando II to the monks of Montserrat. Madrid, 14 September 1482 or 23 October 1482? Caresmar, who offers a slightly different transcription, dates the letter to 14 September 1482. Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 349. Albareda dates the document to 23 October 1482. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #17, 54-55. 17

Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya, to the monks of Montserrat. Agramunt, 4 December 1482. Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 349. 18

Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Madrid, 2 January 1483. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #18, 55. Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Madrid, 11 February 1483. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #8, 472; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #19, 55.

110

royal chancery on 18 September 1461.19 In the early 1470s, Boyl transferred to the court of Archbishop-Administrator Juan de Aragón of Zaragoza (d. 1475), the illegitimate son of King Juan II and a Castilian noblewoman surnamed Avellaneda. Here, Boyl served as secretary to the archbishop, as shown in a censal executed for the widow Joana Sala in December 1473.20 Boyl returned to the king’s chancery shortly before the death of the archbishop in November 1475 when a registro de las patentes identified him again as royal secretary in addition to a new role supporting the negotiations with France regarding the counties of Roselló and Cerdagne. 21 Boyl soon transferred to the court of Fernando II, when, on December 13 the royal secretary Gaspar de Avinyo recorded Fernando’s decision to send Boyl as an emissary to meet the French ambassador Jean de Villiers de la Grossaye (1434/1439-1499), bishop of Lombéz, at Bayona. 22

19

Unedited document. Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancellaria, Reg. 3470, fol. 188r. A partial transcription can be found in Josep M. Prunés, “Nuevos datos y observaciones para la biografía de Fray Bernardo Boyl,” Bollettino ufficiale dell’ordine dei minimi 49/4 (2004): 558-559. 20

Unedited document. Arxiu Històric de Protocols de Barcelona, Notari Pere Pasqual 1469-1474, refa 191/41, without foliation. Several historians have misinterpreted this document by identifying Boyl as the secretary to Zapata and not to the archbishop. The error itself stemmed from a misreading of the summary transcription of the document found in Ricardo Carreras Valls, El llibre a Catalunya, 1338-1590 (Barcelona: Imprenta Altés, 1936), 7475. This error can be found in Anselm M. Albareda, “Lul·lisme a Montserrat al segle XVè. L’ermità Bernat Boil,” Estudios lulianos 9 (1965): 10; Josep Prunés, “Bernard Boil. Datos, interrogantes y documentos olvidados,” Bollettino ufficiale dell’Ordine dei Minimi 47 (1999): 109. 21

Unedited document. Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancellaria, Reg. 3415, fols. 100r-100v. Original citation found in Ricardo Carreras Valls, Catalunya descobridora d’Amèrica: la pre-descoberta e els Catalans Joan Cabot I Cristòfol Colim; segons documents inèdits (Barcelona: Imprenta Altés, 1929), 161. This is the only extant evidence that records Boyl notarizing a royal document as secretary in the chancery of Juan II. Prunés corrected the erroneous dating of the document found in previous scholarship. Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 561 n. 16. Ulloa cited the month inaccurately. Luis Ulloa, “Esclarecimiento de algunos puntos dudosos en la vida de fray Bernardo de Boil,” Butlletí de l’Academia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona 16 (1933-1936): 19. Calmette cited the day inaccurately. Joseph Calmette, “La monarchie aragonaise et la campagne des français en Rousillon en 1474-1475,” Anales du Midi 61 (1948-1949): 197. The document records records Boyl’s involvment with Joan Ramón Folc III (d. 1486), Conde de Cardona y Prades, and Bernat Hugo de Rocabertí (d. 1483-1484), Castellón de Ampurias, who had recently arrived at the court after negotiations with King Louis XI of France (1423-1483). Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 351-357; Idem, Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de Fernando II de Aragón (Barcelona: C.S.I.C. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1962), 404-408; Joseph Calmette, La question des pyrénées et la Marche d’Espagne au moyen âge (Paris: J.B. Janin, 1947), 218-228; Luis Suaréz Fernández, Política internacional de Isabel la Católica, 5 vols. (Valladolid: Instituto “Isabel la Católica” de Historia Eclesiástica, 1965-1972), 1: 73-77. 22

Antonia Paz y Meliá, El cronista Alonso de Palencia. Su vida y sus obras (Madrid: 1914), 261-262; Vicens Vives, Historia crítica, 440-458 and 467-468; Calmette, La question des pyrénées, 227; Suaréz Fernández,

111

Between January and May 1478, Boyl served as commissar in charge of provisioning the royal fleet sent to Sardinia to put down the rebellion of Leonardo de Alagón, marqués de Oristán (1436-1494).23 One year later, Fernando granted Boyl a benefice in Maó (Menorca)24 and reconfirmed Boyl as royal secretary at Trujillo in 1479.25

Finally, the future hermit of

Montserrat served as general commissar for the invasion of Corsica in 1480 under Bernat de Vilamarí.26 His duty as commissar in 1480 is the last report of Boyl as a member of the court

Política internacional de Isabel la Católica, 1: 142-149; Suárez Fernández and de Mata Carriazo Arroquia, La España de los Reyes Católicos, 1: 204-206. 23

Fernando II to Juan Ram. Santiago de Campostela, 30 September 1486. Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancellaria, Reg. 3663, fol. 216v. Fidel Fita, “Fray Bernardo Boyl. Documentos inéditos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 22 (1893): 373-374. Fita’s date is October, which is inaccurate. De la Torre argues that it should be September, which is when the Catholic Monarchs were in Santiago de Compostela. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 449 n. 3. The transcription by Collell states February, when the Catholic Monarchs were in Madrid. Jaime Collell, Fray Bernardo Boyl, primer apóstol de América (Vic: L. Anglada, 1929), 58-59. Zurita also recorded that Boyl led a ship sent to Trapani (arribó a Trapana una gallera suya cuya capitán era Boyl) in support of the lloctenient of Sicily, Count Joan Ramon Folc III and Admiral Joan de Villamarí (d. 1479). Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, Anales de la corona de Aragón, edited by A. Canellas López, 9 vols. (Zaragoza: C.S.I.C. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1967-1986), bk. XX, c. 18; Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragón, 342 and 370-371 (misidentifies the admiral); Suárez Fernández, Política internacional de Isabel la Católica, 1: 230-233. 24

Fernando granted the rectorship of Maó in May. Unedited document. Cáceres, 6 May 1479. Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancelleria, Reg. 3632, 77r-77v. The notification of the grant to the bishop of Mallorca is also unedited. Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Cancelleria, Reg. 3632, fol. 78r. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 449-450 and 465-466; Albareda, “Llul·lisme a Montserrat,” 10-11. 25

Josep Prunés informed me in a personal letter on 6 April 2005 that Vicens Vives’ edition of the original document inaccurately recorded the date of Boyl’s appointment. Vicens Vives, Historia crítica, 522 and 582. Boyl does not appear as a secretary in the study of Fernando’s chancery by Sevillano Colom. Francisco Sevillano Colom, “La cancellería de Fernando el Católico,” in Vida y obra de Fernando el Católico, edited by Antonio de la Torre (Zaragoza: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas de la Excma. Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza. Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 1955), 236-238. 26

Most historians to date have misdated Boyl’s role in the defeat of Leonardo de Alagón to 1479, not as it should be, 1478. It is a confusion that stems from two distinct moments when Boyl served as general commissar. For a discussion of these events, see Suaréz Fernández, Política internacional de Isabel la Católica, 1: 240; Antonio de la Torre, ed., Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales de los Reyes Católicos, 6 vols. (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Patronato Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, 1949-1966), 1: 422-423; Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 2: 299 and 545546; Albareda, “Llul·lisme a Montserrat,” 11 n. 20.

112

before he became a hermit, when episcopal records show him living at Montserrat when ordained as sub-deacon in Barcelona on 16 June 1481.27 We do no know why Boyl suddenly became a hermit at Montserrat. He left no account of his conversion, leading many to suspect what role the king had in his decision to join Montserrat given the monarch’s plans for its reform.

His surviving letters show no particular

devotion to the Virgin or the hermitage. A few letters only mention his desire to abandon the demands of the court. In April 1484, for example, he complained to his friend Arnau Descós that his desire to lead the life of a hermit continued to be frustrated by the king, who repeatedly summoned him to serve as an ambassador to France.28 One month later, while returning from the the Cortes in Tarazona, Boyl described how the mountain and caves located outside of the village of Prades provided the most suitable place for him to live as a hermit.29 Even as late as

27

Fidel Fita, “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos datos biográficos,” Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 558. Boyl already held the legal status of cleric when he was ordained. He described himself as a cleric of the diocese of Lleida (clericus dioecesis ilerdensis) in 1475. Unedited document. ACA, Cancelleria, Reg. 3415, fols. 100r-100v. This description likely applies to the religious status of “clérigo de corona,” the clerical distinction applied to those who had not received minor or major orders, but who could enjoy ecclesiastical benefices. This is distinguished from “clérigos conjugados,” even though it is not difficult to find passages in which this terminology is confused. Tarsicio de Azcona, La elección y reforma del episcopado español en tiempo de los reyes católicos (Madrid: C.S.I.C. Instituto “P. Enrique Flórez,” 1960), 165 n. 76; John Edwards, The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs 1474-1520 (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 2000), 196-197. 28

The complaint responded to Fernando II’s summons to the Cortes of Tarazona to discuss the king’s renewed efforts to recover the Counties of Roselló and Cerdagne from the French crown. Bernat Boyl to Arnau Descós. Tarazona, 20 April 1484. Fidel Fita, “Escritos de Bernal Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): #7, 300. 29

Bernat Boyl to Arnau Descós. Montserrat, May 1484? Fidel Fita, “El primer apóstol y el primer obispo de América. Escrito inédito de Fray Bernal Boyl; y nuevos datos biográficos de Fray García de Padilla, obispo de Bainúa y de Santo Domingo en la isla de Haiti.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 573-587. The letter is undated. However, it likely was completed in early to mid-May 1484, when Boyl returned from the Cortes of Tarazona. Boyl returned through Prades, which belonged to Count Ramón Folc III, whom Boyl had served as an emissary to France. The date of the letter can be further established by looking at Boyl’s letter of consolation written upon the death of Bernat Hugo de Rocabertí (d. circa 1483-1484), Castellón de Ampurias. I believe that the consolation letter was composed on 30 May 1484 (the document has the date “May 30” but not the year). This coincided with Boyl’s return to Montserrat, where he witnessed the confirmation of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat on 25 May 1425. As such, the date of the Bernat Hugo de Rocabertí’s death would likely have occurred in late 1483 or early 1484. On the problematic dating of the death of the Castellón de Amposta and the letter see, Cebrià Baraut, “Una lletra consolatoria de Bernat Boïl, ermità de Montserrat,” Studia monastica 32

113

1498, Boyl showed his original passion to withdraw from political affairs when he pleaded with Cardinal-Bishop Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros of Toledo (1436-1517) to convince the Catholic Monarchs to remove him from his duties in Rome so that he could “return to end my last few days in a hermitage more suited than here for my position and for the salvation of my soul.”30 Albareda suggested that Boyl’s interest in Llullism lead him to convert since Llull’s writings placed anchoriticism at the summit of Christian life. However, Boyl never cited Ramon Llull’s (1232-1315) writings in his letters or other religious writings.31 Even his friend Descós recommended Llull’s De consolatione eremitae in1489, showing at least a lack of familiarity of one of Llull’s works written specifically for hermits. 32 On the whole, Boyl’s own brief words show that his conversion was personal and not political. Yet, this personal commitment to eremiticism did not free him from his duties to the king, who most likely encouraged his secretary to enter Montserrat to help him with his reforms. Fernando II and Isabel I insisted that the clergy, like the monarchs, must be examples of “la vida honesta”; an upstanding way of life that served as a model for the laity reflective of the dignity of the church and crown. The king’s

(1990): 381-382. For the confirmation of the confraternity, see Benet Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, (12581485), edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 310. Partial transcription in Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #23, 57. 30

“Porque me buelua para acabar mjs pocos dias en una hermjta de más a mi grado y saluación de mj alma que aqui.” Bernat Boyl to Cardinal-Archbishop Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. Rome, 15 July 1498. Lucio María Nuñez, “Dos cartas interesantes de Fr. Bernado Boil a Cisneros,” Archivo Ibero-Americano 3/18 (1916): 411. 31

Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, Readers and Books in Majorca, 1229-1550, 2 vols. (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1991), 1: 222; Albareda, “Llul·lisme a Montserrat,” 11; Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 564. 32

Arnau Descós to Bernat Boyl. Palma de Mallorca, 10 March 1488. Fita, “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl,” #14, 319-320.

114

religious leaders not only served as models for the church, but also as an extension of royal policy throughout their kingdoms.33 Boyl, given his conversion and life at the court, served both.

Bernat Boyl and the Hermits of Montserrat There is little doubt that Boyl’s conversion allowed the king to put his long desired reform into action.34 Boyl’s rapid ordination through the clerical orders of sub-deacon, deacon, and priest between 16 June and 22 December 1481 (all while the king resided in Barcelona) only emphasized the importance placed on the former secretery as to carry out the reform. This quick path to ordination served three purposes. First, it gave Boyl an ecclesiastical rank not held by the mostly lay brothers in the hermitage. Second, as a priest he could perform the sacrament of penance within the community for those who had failed to maintain their spiritual discipline. Third, Boyl’s ordination coincided with Fernando II’s renewed negotiations with Cardinal della Rovere. On June 19, three days after Boyl’s ordination as sub-deacon, the king again wrote the cardinal asking him to renounce the abbacy. This letter accompanied a long memorandum to Joan Pi at Rome that ordered his procurator to discuss they abbey with the cardinal until he agreed to accept Fernando II’s terms over the renunciation of his abbacy.35

33

Tarsicio de Azcona, La elección y reforma del episcopado español en tiempo de los reyes católicos (Madrid: C.S.I.C. Instituto “P. Enrique Flórez,” 1960), 98; Edwards, Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 210-212; Hillgarth, Spanish Kingdoms, 2: 400-410. 34

De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 449.

35

Fernando II to Joan Pi. Barcelona, 19 June 1481. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #5, 470; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #11, 52; Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 178r.

115

Boyl immediately began to work with the other administrators, helping Guillem de Peralta reorganize the community’s estates.36 These efforts were successful at first. Fernando and Isabel commented separately on his accomplishments and expressed their continued for the hermit. The king and queen both assured Boyl that they would complete all the proposals - we do not know exactly what they were - they had promised to the new hermit.37 Both letters made clear that their former secretary now had the responsibility for reforming the community only nine months after becoming a hermit on the mountain of Montserrat. Boyl’s tasks, however, went far beyond the monastic estates. As the lone religious member of the community put in place by Fernando II, he had the task of introducing Observantinism as the new form of religious life to be practices by the monks and hermits. Unlike the economic reforms, Boyl’s devotional reforms caused immediate resentment at Montserrat. The community, frustrated by his actions, sent a letter with Boyl to the king detailing their complaints over the new practices being imposed on their community.38 Fernando responded sternly to their complaints to correct any confusion over Boyl’s authority.

He

reminded the community that he had long desired the reforms and that it was his will (nostra voluntat) that the house conform “since they [the reforms] are pleasing our Lord (plahent a 36

The documents are dated by the use of the word “eodem (the same)” in the position of dating records by Pérez Vassa. The two letters appear directly after Pérez Vassa’s summary of the letter sent by Fernando II to the monks of Montserrat on 13 August 1481 informing them that Guillem de Peralta had been named administrator of the community. 37

Fernando II to Bernat Boyl. Barcelona, 13 August 1481? “eodem. - Carta a fr. Boil, asegurandole el Rey, que cumplira lo que le tiene ofrecido.” Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 177v. Isabel I to Bernat Boyl. Barcelona, 13 August 1481? “eodem. – Carta de la Reigna, asegurando a fr. Boil lo mismo. – sin duda, instaba aquel Varon [?] por la Reforma de esta su Casa, de cuia deformación hace Argaiz la pintura.” Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 177v. 38

Fita, “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos Datos biográficos,” 559; Idem, “Fray Bernal Buyl y Cristóbal Colón,” 558-559; Albareda, “Llul·lisme a Montserrat,” 13 n. 27; Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 564 n. 26.

116

nostre Señor).” The king ordered the community to fulfill Boyl’s directives and have faith in his actions as if he acted “as our own person (com a nostra persona).”39 By emphasizing his will, Fernando II tied Boyl’s activities to his authority, ensuring at least theoretically that the monks and hermits would obey the king’s desire to reform the community. The hermits and monks justifiably questioned Boyl’s authority, since he held no official position in the community. Authority over religious affairs (spiritualia) remained in the hands of Abbot Guafred Sors, who served as the cardinal’s designated vicar-general. At the hermitage, matters of spiritual discipline remained in the hands of the presidente de los hermitaños. What authority Boyl possessed came directly from the king, an authority that had no legal foundation in canon law given the commendam status of the abbey. In the least, the community’s letter demonstrated their awareness that Fernando II now dictated the internal affairs of Montserrat. However, their awareness of the situation did not mean compliance without the express approval of the cardinal, who at this point gave no approval for the introduction of Observantinism at Montserrat. The king, therefore, needed to vest Boyl with some form of recognized authority within the community. Since Abbot Guafred Sors already held the office of vicar-general, the only office within Montserrat that remained opened to Boyl without becoming a monk remained the office of the presidente de los hermitaños. To be sure, no evidence explains how Boyl became the president of the eremitic community. We only know that he acquired the position between 22 December 1481, when he was ordained as a priest in Barcelona, and 15 May 1482, when Abbot Guafred Sors granted Boyl

39

Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 347; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #13, 53.

117

the right to hear confessions and provide absolution at Montserrat.40 Circumstantial evidence, however, suggests that Fernando II “encouraged” his appointment. First, Fernando II insisted on placing his own men as the officials in charge of the community, as seen in the case of Guillem de Peralta and Abbot Guafred Sors. However, the abbot could not appoint the president of the hermits. This could only happen by election. If the hermits so quickly refused to submit to Boyl’s reforms, it is hard to see how they would have agreed to elect him as their superior in the first place. Secondly, Boyl held the office over several years despite repeated negative reactions to his reforms.41 If Boyl did not hold the office at the instigation of the king, then the hermits could elect one of their members who would have authority over Boyl, and with that authority, work against the introduction of Observantinism. Finally, Boyl was a career diplomat. His recent entrance into the hermitage hardly provided him with the proper level of training either as a hermit or in Observantinism to fulfill his new responsibilities, since experience and discretion remained the essential qualities needed to direct a hermit’s spiritual formation. Appointing (or in this case engineering) Boyl as superior provided leadership in the community that did not need the approval of the cardinal by virtue of their constitution. Placing him as superior simply left the community with little recourse to resist Boyl’s appointment except for petitioning the king or leaving the mountain.

40

Abbot Guafred Sors of San Cugat del Vallès to Bernat Boyl. Barcelona, 15 May 1482. “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 348 n. 1. 41

Caresmar,

Boyl held the office as late as 1490, when he was captured during an embassy to Charles VIII of France. Here he described himself as “prior delos hermitanyos de Montserrat.” Bernat Boyl to Charles VIII of France. Angers, 1 August 1490. Unedited document cited as Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Fr. 155-41, fol. 98r. A poor facsimile of the document can be found in Odette d’Allerit, “Bernardo Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat, y los orígenes de los Mínimos en España,” in España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos, Analecta legerensia 1 (Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970), 244.

118

Looking at Boyl’s ability to hear confessions best demonstrates the extent of his new authority to reform the community. On 15 May 1482, only a year after becoming a hermit and six months after being made a priest, Abbot Sors granted him the right to perform the sacrament of penance without restrictions at Montserrat, this time with the permission of the cardinal: Brother Guafred by the grace of God abbot of Sant Cugat del Vallès of the Order of Saint Benedict, diocese of Barcelona, general-vicar in all spiritual and temporal affairs and in all things of the Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat, of the said Order of Saint Benedict, diocese of Vic, on behalf of the most reverend in Christ, father and lord Giuliano by the mercy of the Divine, titular cardinal of San Pietro in Vincula of the Holy Roman Church, perpetual commendatory abbot of the said monastery of Montserrat, to our beloved in Christ Bernat Boyl, priest-hermit, superior of the hermits of Santa Maria de Montserrat, greetings in he who is the true salvation. Confident in your faith, probity, doctrine, and in piety in God, which you conveyed in faithful witness before us, we grant you the license and power of hearing the confessions of pilgrims, and all others whosoever come to that same monastery, and as much in the cell of la Trinitat, which is on the high mountain peaks, as in other cells, and in the same monastery, just as necessity demands in the witness of those present and in the authority which we administer from the office of vicar: giving to you all papal and episcopal privileges according to the dictates of the Apostolic bulls granted to the said monastery of Montserrat, or the others that were given or are to be given to the confessors and whosoever else until now, so that you may be more able to absolve, and spirited in absolution.42

42

Frater Guafridus Dei gratia Abbas Monasterii Sancti Cucufatis Vallensis Ordinis Santi Benedicti Dioces. Barcins. Vicarius in Spiritualibus et temporalibus Generalibus Monasterii, et totius Abbatiatus Beatae Mariae Montis-Serrati, dicti Ordinis Sancti Benedicti Vicens. Dioces. pro R.ndo in Christo Pater et Domino Domno Juliano miseratione Divini tituli Sancti Petri ad Vincula Sanctae Romae Ecclesiae S.ro Cardinali Perpetuo Comendatario dicti Monasterii Montis-Serrati. Dilecto Nobis in Christo Bernardo Bohil. P.re Haeremitae Superiori Haeremitarum Beatae Mariae Montis-Serrati, Salutem in eo qui est vera Salus. Confidentes de tua Fide, probitate, doctrina, et in Deum pietate quibus fide digno tum testimonio apud nos comendaris licentiam tibi et potestatem audiendi Confessiones tam Peregrinorum, quam aliorum quorumcumque ad ipsum Monasterium confluentium et tam in Sacello Trinitatis, quod incolis in montibus quam in aliis Sacellis, et in ipso Monasterio, pro vt necessitas poposcit tenore praesentium et auctoritate quam fungimur Oficii Vicariatus tibi impartimur, et concedimus: Casus omnes Papales et Episcopales tibi comunicantes qui juxta tenorem Bullarum Apostolicarum dicto Monasterii MontisSerrati concessarum, vel alias confessoribus quibuscumque hactenus comunicari soliti sunt et possunt, vt plenius valeas absolvere etiam absolvendi. Te propterea in Domino hortamur, et monemus, et ita Saluti[????]ach sedulo incumbas, vt condignam ex eo labore mercedem in Coelis repositam fuesse reperias. Datis Barchinone die quinto decimo Maii anno a Nativitate Domini Millessimo CCCCLXXXII. Vidit Vicarius supradictus.” Abbot Guafred Sors of San Cugat del Vallès to Bernat Boyl. Barcelona, 15 May 1482. Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 348 n. 1.

119

Abbot Sors extended Boyl’s authority far beyond the powers of the presidente de los hermitaños, limited as they were to the admonition, correction and punishment of the hermits. Boyl, as “superior of the hermits,” now could provide the sacrament of penance for the entire religious community without restrictions. The fact that the privilege was personal to Boyl, and not constitutionally part of the office, magnified the relationship between his new power as confessor and the extraordinary powers Boyl held as the superior of the hermits.

Vested with this

sacramental power, Boyl could now directly confront lapses in spiritual discipline based on the failure to uphold the principals of Observantinism being introduced into the community.

The

new “superior of the hermits,” had taken on a monarchical guise and lost its “republican” form so crucial to the principals underlying the constitutional reforms of 1476. The initial complaints about Boyl’s reforms turned into an outright rebellion in the summer of 1482, when a visitation of by Congregation of Zaragoza y Tarragona provided a new opportunity to air their grievances.43 The king had ordered the visitation in July and specifically selected Abbot Gaufred Sors and the Abbot Joan Delgado of San Salvador de Breda (d. 1507) as the visitators.44 In early August, the Infante Enrique informed Montserrat about the impending visitation now headed by Abbot Guafred Sors and Abbot Galcerando de Cartellá of Santa Maria 43

The letter is now lost, but is summarized by Caresmar. Fernando II to the monks of Montserrat. Córdoba?, 24 July 1482. Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 349. The letter likely responded to information contained in a now lost memoranda sent to Fernando II by the Infante Enrique from Barcelona on 17 July 1482. The infante sent an additional letter on July 26, but this would have arrived too late to influence the king’s decision to order the investigation. Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Córdoba, 5 September 1482. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #15, 54. De la Torre does not mention the other letters in his edition of the document. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #7, 472. 44

The selection of the investigators served two purposes: Abbot Sors avoided the problem of exemption due to his role as vicar, while the selection of the congregation signaled a partial return to the pre-commendam order. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 11. Joan Delgado held his abbacy in commendam while serving as a chaplain of Fernando II. Enrique Flórez, Manuel Risco, Antolín Merino, et alia eds., España sagrada. Theatro geographico-historico de la iglesia de España. Origen divisiones, y limites de todas sus provincias. Antiguedad, traslaciones, y estado antiguo, y presente de sus sillas, con varias dissertaciones criticas, 51 vols. (Madrid, A. Marin and M.F. Rodriguez, 1754-1879), 45: 172 (hereafter cited as Flórez, España sagrada).

120

d’Amer (d. 1483?).45 According to the infante, the abbots would examine the entire community and return with the information to the infante, who would then proceed to put their recommendations into place.46 This, he portentously concluded, would ensure the “complete peace and tranquility of that most devout and holy house.”47 For now, the visitation proved a success and the infante informed the community that he would put their recommendations into effect as soon as possible.48 The peace at Montserrat lasted less than a month, when the king received distressing news about Boyl’s reforms from Guillem de Peralta.

Boyl’s zealotry for the eremitic life

emerged when he began converting others to become a hermit while at the same time imposing his Observantine views on the rest of the community. In a letter to his treasurer, Fernando thanked de Peralta for stopping Boyl from convincing his nephew the Infante Joan de Aragón y Navarra to become a hermit at Montserrat.49 At the same time, the king showed his unease at Boyl’s seemingly overzealous commitment to reform. He asked de Peralta to make sure that his

45

Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya, to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 2 August 1482; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #14, 53. For Abbot Galcerando de Cartellá of Santa Maria d’Amer, see Flórez, España sagrada, 45: 163. 46

“Fer la vesita e regonexer e informarse com lo dit monestir sta e es regit e servit.” Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya, to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 2 August 1482. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #14, 53. 47

“Total repos e tranquilitat de aqueixa devotissima casa.” Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya, to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 2 August 1482. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #14, 53. 48

“Se dará providencia, y se cumplirá con todo lo que los visitadores havian informado deverse executar.” Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya, to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 21 August 1482. The document is now lost. It is partially edited in Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 349. 49

Fernando II to Guillem to Peralta. Córdoba, 5 September 1482. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #16, 54; de la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #6, 471-472. The Infante Juan de Aragón y Navarra was the son of Carlos, Príncipe de Viana (d. 1461), the first-born son of Juan II de Aragón.

121

former secretary did not undermine the stability at Montserrat through any excessive acts that would lead to disorder in the community (en fazer demasias contra su orden).50 By the end of September, the community began to actively resist the reforms. The disputes caused enough concern in Barcelona that the Infante Enrique informed the monks and hermits that he would personally come to Montserrat in order to resolve their differences (componens alas diferencias).51 These “differences” continued into October, when Fernando II thanked Boyl for working with the infante to resolve the internal disputes of the house.52 The infante’s efforts only had temporary success. By October 23, the king again encouraged the community to settle its disputes, act in concord and charity (ab concordia e charitat siau vnits), and to support Boyl’s reforms of the house (redrez de la casa). 53 Again, these efforts at peace had little lasting effect.

Funds sent by the Infante Enrique on December 4 to pay the

community’s debts included a now familiar entreaty to maintain peace in the house.54

50

Fernando II to Guillem to Peralta. Córdoba, 5 September 1482. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #16, 54; de la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #6, 471-472. 51

“Del mismo Infante, Carta, ofreciendo venir su persona a conponens alas diferencias.” Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 176v. 52

“Su Carta a fr. Bernardo Boil (Monge Sacerdote y Hermitaño) a quien despues embiaron para Conversion delos Americanos, dandole el parabien, de que hubiese solicitado con tanta caridad, y Zelo la ida del Infante ViRey a Componia las diferencias de la Casa- a 6 de Octubre.” Pérez Vassa, “Ultimatum [Sobre los distintos tipos de Rentas que percibió el monasterio desde el año de la reforma de 1493 a 1789],” XVIII century (1789), Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/2520, fol. 177r. 53

Fernando II to the monks of Monterrat. Madrid, 23 October 1482. Argaíz, La perla de Cataluña, 109; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #17, 55. Caresmar provided a slightly different transcription of the letter, and also dated the letter to 14 September 1482. Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 349. The letters describing discord in the community argue against his interpretation. De la Torre, on the other hand, believed in the early resistance within the community. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 453; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 11-12. 54

The Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya, to the monks of Montserrat. Agramunt, 4 December 1482. A summary, but not a transcription, can be found in Caresmar, “Noticias del venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil,” 349.

122

Reactions against the reforms continued into the following spring and accelerated after Cardinal della Rovere finally relinquished the abbacy in favor of Joan de Peralta in March 1483 in exchange for an annual pension of 200 ducats and an additional pension from the Abbey of La Grotta in Sicily.55 De Peralta, like that of Cardinal della Rovere, held complete jurisdiction over Montserrat. Yet, placing his man on the abbatial chair was only a partial victory for the king. The pope refused to grant Montserrat full independence from the papacy and instead appointed de Peralta in commendam within papal jurisdiction.56 Fernando, however, could not be more pleased at the prospect of reform, as he informed the Infante that he considered Joan de Peralta’s appointment the final key to return Montserrat to a well-ruled and governed community.57 Two months later, the king sent a second letter to the infante emphasizing the importance of the reforms, which the king had specifically outlined in a now lost letter sent to Abbot de Peralta.58 With the appointment of de Peralta and his detailed description of the reform, Fernando II made it known that the introduction of Observance would no longer be delayed. But the appointment

55

Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Madrid, 2 January 1483. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #18, 55. Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Madrid, 11 February 1483. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #8, 472; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #19, 55. 56

The original letter granting the commendam abbacy does not survive. However, a document issued on the same day by Sixtus IV verifies the beginning date of his abbacy, as it described the handover of the Abbey of La Grotta as part of the settlement. Sixtus IV to Cardinal Bishop Giuliano della Rovere of Ostia. Rome, 10 March 1483. Albareda, “Cronologia dels primers abats,” #21, 354-355. Sixtus IV to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, bishop de Ostia. Rome, 10 March 1483. Albareda, “Cronologia dels primers abats,” #21, 355; Idem, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 18; de la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 454. Cardinal della Rovere was bishop of Ostia from 1483-1503. The Abbey of La Grotta was in fact given in commendam to the Franciscan Iacobo de Leo, who had to pay the pension to Cardinal della Rovere. 57

Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Córdoba, 15 May 1483. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #9, 473; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #20, 56. 58

Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Córdoba, 15 May 1483. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #21, 56.

123

came at a cost. As with Boyl, the community again was denied the right to elect their own superior. Contrary to the king’s expectations, Boyl and de Peralta’s combined efforts provoked some hermits and monks into outright rebellion. Evidence of their opposition is small but striking. The infante informed the king that several hermits and monks abandoned Montserrat in letters sent to the Catholic Monarch between 25 August and 14 September 1483. The king was not pleased at the situation: “Concerning the affairs at Montserrat and the flight of monks and hermits, this has displeased us on account of the inherent devotion that we have for the holy house.”59 We do not know how many religious abandoned the monastery and hermitage at this time. Evidence suggests that it was not a wholesale rebellion. A full contingent of monks and hermits witnessed the confirmation of the statutes of the Confraternity of Montserrat on 25 May 1484.60

This suggests the ability to quickly fill the places of those who abandoned the

community. Nevertheless, the departures, in full view of the reactions against the reforms dating back to 1481, show enough discontent over the policy of imposing Observantinism at Montserrat that members of both the eremitic and coenobitic communities abandoned the monastery rather than submit to the reforms.61 The monks and the hermits had legitimate complaints. They only needed to point out de Peralta’s position as commendam abbot and the irregular placement of Boyl as president of the 59

“Todas vuestras cartas de xxv de agosto fasta xiiii de setiembre havemos recebido a las quales responderemos a lo necessario...De los fechos de Montserrate y de la yda de los monges y ermitanyos nos ha desplazido por la innata devocion que a aquella casa tenemos. Y screbimos al abbat lo que acerca dello nos ha parecido deverle screvir.” Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Vitoria, 7 October 1483. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #21, 56. A less complete edition can be found in de la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #10, 473. 60

Confirmation of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat, 25 May 1484. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 309-311. Partially edited in Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #23, 56-57. 61

De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” 453 and 455.

124

hermits. Irregular election both in theology and in canon law justified their resitance and departure from the community. Writers such as Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) argued that irregular election placed the community at risk of exploitation and spiritual laxity due to the unscrupulous or neglectful actions of the superior.62 Such complaints were often made in juridical terms, especially pointing to the language found in the formulas of monastic profession that emphasized how obedience was tied to the canonical election of the abbot.63 The anonymous twelfth-century treatise On the Profession of Monks likewise argued that “the obligation of continuing to live with him [the abbot] and obey him is suspended” in the case of an irregular election.64 Similarly, an anonymous letter written in England during the fourteenth century questioned whether or not the appointment of lay abbots outside the constitutional rules justified opposition to the superior.65 Justifications based on the two-fold nature of the vow of monastic obedience also supported the case of the hermits. Again, Bernard of Clairvaux argued that the vow bound the monk first and foremost to God and then to the Rule and the abbot.66 Obedience to live under the

62

Jean Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations and Abbatial Authority: St. Bernard’s Book on Precept and Dispensation, in The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises I, translated by Conrad Greenia, Cistercian Fathers Series 1 (Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1970), 79. The introduction to the Precept and Dispensation in this volume is a translation of an article that Leclercq jointly composed with Gärtner, Jean Leclerq and G. Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire de l’obéissance monastique,” Anuario de estudios medievales 2 (1965): 35-36. 63

“I promise to you, the superior of the monastery, and to your successors canonically installed, due obedience and reverence according to the canonical rule of this holy Order.” Quoted from Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations, 79 n. 21; Leclerq and Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire,” 36 n. 24. 64

Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations, 79; Leclerq and Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire,” 36. 65

Jean Leclerq, “Pour l’histoire de l’obéissance au moyen âge,” Revue d’ascetique et de mystique 41/2 (1965): 126. 66

Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations, 89; Leclerq and Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire,” 52.

125

abbot and rule therefore only granted the superior the authority to serve as an intermediary between the Rule and the monk.67 As the primary interpreter of the Rule, the abbot did have the right to dispense with its literal interpretation as long as he did not administer or violate the spirit of the text according to his own will.68 Monastic rules, according to Bernard of Clairvaux, could not be changed in any way unless “lawfully and safely dispensed according to circumstances, time, place, and persons, by those men who have inherited this authority through legitimate elections.”69 The Rule, and not the abbot, remained the norm for governing the community. Any capricious interpretation, including one that allowed for the irregular election of the superior, could justify disobedience and departure from the monastery.70 The hermits could therefore argue that they did not have to accept Observantinism since they made their vows to another abbot and interpretation of the Rule with the understanding that they would live according to their traditions and not Observantinism. Contemporary writers believed that religious could leave the monastery and transfer to another community rather than accept a more austere form of religious life. Such austere reforms could not be imposed without the full consent of the monk and/or the community.71 For 67

Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations, 90-91; Leclerq and Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire,” 53-54. 68

Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations, 85; Leclerq and Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire,” 49. 69

Bernard of Clairvaux, “On Precept and Dispensation,” in The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises I, translated by Conrad Greenia, Cistercian Fathers Series 1 (Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1970), II: 4, 108. 70

Leclercq [and G. Gärtner], introduction to Monastic Obligations, 89; Leclerq and Gärtner, “S. Bernard dans l’histoire,” 52. 71

“Thus runs the formula of profession: “I promise.” not the Rule, but “obedience according to the Rule of Saint Benedict.” “According to the Rule,” and therefore not according to the will of the superior. If, once I have made such a profession, my abbot attempts to impose upon me something which is not according to the Benedictine Rule, and which is also not in accord with the Rules of St. Basil, Augustine, or Pachomius, to what obligation, I ask, have I to conform? I can be obliged to perform only that which I have promised.” Bernard of Clairvaux, “On Precept and Dispensation,” IV: 10, 112-13.

126

this reason, no superior was allowed to diminish or extend the obligations found in the oath of obedience according to his interpretation of the Rule. As Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, “Let no superior forbid me to fulfill my promises, nor demand more. My vows cannot be added to without my concurrence, nor diminished without clear necessity.”72 Obedience according to the Rule rested on the customs and interpretations traditionally followed in the monastery where the monk resided. Each community was different and this difference did not devalue the form of life practiced so long as the house remained well-governed and committed to spiritual discipline.73 Justified resistence and the right to leave the community based on the formula of profession was supported by canon law.74 According to Francis Donald Logan, seeking a transfer, or transitus, “was based on the premise that one’s profession was, at root, a profession to the religious life in general and not merely to its manifestation in a single house or a single order.”75 Normally, a transitus involved the desire to seek a more austere religious life (transitus ad ordinem strictiorem or arctiorem) found in another community.76 However, fifteenth-century

72

Bernard of Clairvaux, “On Precept and Dispensation,” V: 11, 113.

73

“What then? Must the monks of Tours adopt the customs of Cluny or should Cluny give place to Tours? Would you perhaps have both adopt the strict literal interpretation of Cîteaux? We have all professed the same Rule, and even in the very same words, but since the implicit intention is different in each case, different observances can undoubtedly be followed in different places without fear of perjury or perdition.” Bernard of Clairvaux, “On Precept and Dispensation,” XVI: 48, 141. 74

Technically, the hermits unlike the monks could abandon the monastery when they saw fit as they only took simple vows and not solemn vows. However, this was increasingly discouraged (if not refused) by the church during the course of the Middle Ages as seen in the successful attempt to regularlize the Beguines and the mandated perpetual, but not solemn, vows of the Third Order of Franciscans. 75

Francis Donald Logan, Runaway Religious in Medieval England c. 1240-1540, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 43. 76

“Potest religiosus zelo sanctioris vitae ad religionem transire strictiorem, petita prius licentia praelati sui, licet non obtenta, etiam si primum monasterium sit privilegiatum, quod de illo ad aliud etiam arctius transire non possit. H. d., et est casus notabilis, et quotidie allegatur.” Gregory IX, Decretalium compilatio, Lib. III, Tit. XXXI, C. XVII; Logan, Runaway Religious, 43. Transitus was also allowed under several other circumstances. In the case of a recalcitrant monk, he could be transferred to another community to perform penance. In the Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua monks could be tranferred from one monastery to another as the abbot saw fit.

127

canonists such as William Lyndewode argued that one could transfer to a less strict house (transitus ad ordinem laxiorem) when more austere reforms were introduced into a community without their consent. Lyndewode believed that profession was made to the religious life of poverty, obedience, and chastity, which was not confined to a particular place, but existed wherever a monk practiced his vocation.77 Therefore, if Fernando II and the reformers insisted on changes in their religious practice, the hermits and monks had every right to reject, challenge, and abandon the community without the fear of punishment or incarceration by the superior. Opposition to reform and the abandonment of religious community became a common occurrence during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. For example, several monks fled from the monastery of St. Albans following the election of Thomas de la Mare as abbot in 1349. Intent on reforming the monastery according to the strict observance of the Rule, de la Mare alienated his community, leading several to abandon the monastery without the abbot’s permission rather than submit to his reforms.78 The Conventual Franciscans in Spain took great pains to limit the imposition of Observantine reforms. For instance, statutes approved by the Franciscan Provincial Juan de Santa Ana (d. 1453/1454) for Observantine eremitic houses forbade the Observantine friars from extending their reforms to the conventual communities without their consent.79 In France, Bishop Louis d’Amboise of Albi’s (d. 1505) decision to reform the local Carmelite community met considerable resistance among the brothers. He therefore invited them to dinner, and while they filled their bellies at the episcopal palace, the bishop had twenty-two candidates and their prior cunningly enter the community and take 77

Logan, Runaway Religious, 45.

78

Logan, Runaway Religious, 81.

79

The statutes were legislated on 8 April 1444. García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia,” 3/1: 243 and

260-261.

128

control of the house. The bishop knew he would not gain their consent if they remained in the community, so at dinner he offered the Carmelite friars the opportunity “to freely” accept the reforms and return to the monastery or to be transferred to another house.80 Such was the concern over consent that the French reformer Jean Raulin (1443-1515) stated that “it is not enough to introduce in it some monks of good conduct, since the experience proves that the resistance is terrible.”81 One needed to either obtain full jurisdiction or the complete acceptance of the monks prior to the reform. Resistance to the reforms continued into the summer of 1484, when the community began requesting transfers to other communities to avoid living under Observantinism. Feeling wronged by Boyl and de Peralta, the rebels sought perpetual financial support to lead their lives in other communities. Their argument went so far as to remind the king how his aunt Queen María de Aragón (1401-1458) had conceded to such a request in the 1440s.82 The king was unrelenting in his demands and expressed continued dismay over their opposition, even showing annoyance at their demands for a stipend to abandon the reform.83 80

Joachim Smet, The Carmelites: A History of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel ca. 1200 A.D. until the Council of Trent, 4 vols. (Darien, IL: Carmelite Spiritual Center, 1975-1988), 1: 106-107. Thanks to Paul Chandler for this citation. 81

Quoted in Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 71. Original quotation found in Agustin Renaudet, Préreforme et Humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d’Italie (1494-1517) (Paris: Champion, 1916), 303. 82

Some of the monks and hermits who resisted the formed a separate community within the monastery, refusing to participate in the Divine Office and other functions of the monastery including the profession of new novices. Anselm M. Albareda, “Monjos de Montecassino a Montserrat,” in Casinensia: miscellane di studi Cassinensi, publicati in occasione del XIV centenario della fondazione dell’abadia de Montecassino, 2 vols. (Montecassino: Typographia Casinensii, 1929), 2: 214-216; Cebrià Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda de monjos de Montecassino a Montserrat (1443-1455),” Studia monastica 18 (1975): 300; Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523),” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 340. 83

Fernando II to the community and Abbot Joan de Peralta of Montserrat. Córoba, 18 August 1484. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #11, 473-475; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #24, 57-58. Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Córdoba, 18 August 1484. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #12, 475476; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #25, 58.

129

And because among other things that you are to do to place the said house under the said observance, is to help the monks that stay to understand that they have to observe that [form of life], or leave the monastery...and as it has happened before in past days, in the time of the most serene Queen María, of glorious memory, that some monks of the said monastery were kicked out in the above said manner, who were [then] placed in other houses and supported by pensions of the abbot of that house, and we know that you and that [house] do not have the means to support so many pensions, which having to support them, would bring disruption such that the said observance would not come into effect, or bring the monastery into irreparable poverty and diminution.84

Fernando’s letter could not be more direct; There would be no alternative to the practice of Observantinism at Montserrat. Those that complained about the reforms and desired to leave (and there seems to been several given the reference to so many (tantes despesas) pensions) would be given permission to enter other houses so as not to disrupt the reforms. However, the rebels would do so without any financial support.

In effect, the king granted the rebels

permission to leave. However, this permission came with the coercive power of the purse, which intended to force them to stay and accept the reforms since few if any monasteries would accept the dissidents without some form of financial aid. Fernando even took on the responsibility of convincing them to stay in person. He instructed the Infante Enrique that “if some monks from the said house come to you, or other persons on behalf of them, do not provide them with anything, and send them to us so that fully considering all things, I may and help them see how to fulfill their service to God and his most glorious mother and the good of the said house and

84

“E per que, entre les altres coses en la que per vos se han a fer per a posar la dita casa en la dita oberuança, es desenganar los monjos, que en aquella stan, que tinguen e obseruen aquella, o sen vagen del monestir, per que n i puixau metre altres, e com de nou haiam entes que en dies pasats, en temps de la Serenissima Reyna Maria, de gloriosa recordacio, foren despedits, en la menera sobredita, alguns monjos de dit monestirs e sotenguts a despesa del abbat e de aquexa casa, e nos sabent que vos e aquella no teniu posibilitat de sostenir tantes despeses, les qual, hauentles a sostenir, seria donar destorb a que la dita obseruança no vengues a effecte, o constituyr lo dit monestir en irreperable diminucio e probreça...” Fernando II to the community and Abbot Joan de Peralta of Montserrat. Córoba, 18 August 1484. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #11, 474; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #24, 57.

130

religious way of life.”85 The hermits and monks had their liberty to leave, but they could do so expecting no financial support. If they stayed, the dissident religious would have to submit to the authority of Bernat Boyl and Joan de Peralta and accept Observantinism as the true interpretation of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the proper form of religious life (la observança de la vertadera regla e religio vostra).”86

Conclusion Ultimately, the problem that confronted the king was not a group of hermits and monks trying to maintain a life of lax spiritual discipline. On the contrary, it was the failure to live according to Observantinism as the king’s preferred form of religious life to be practiced in the Aragonese Kingdoms. If Montserrat was to be the model of the king’s authority and piety, then the most austere form of monasticism would need to be practiced by the hermits and monks. As a result, the king resorted to placing certain royal officials into administrative positions to carry out the reform. Before de Peralta became abbot, however, Bernat Boyl resided at Montserrat as a full member of the religious community. Boyl, however, initially had no office or authority to enforce Observantinism at Montserrat. To legitimize Boyl’s authority, the king arranged for Boyl to be placed in the office of the presidente de los hermitaños. If Observantinism became a rallying cry to the opposition to the reforms, Boyl’s placement at the head of the hermitage without the election of the brothers certainly added fuel to the fire. When we also consider the 85

“Si recorreran a vos alguns monjos de la dita casa, o altres persones per ells, no proueyau en cosa alguna, ans aquells remetau a nos, assi que, ben considerades totes coses, puixam proueyr y desenganar aquells, axi com cunple al seruey de Deu y de la sua gloriosa Mare e be de la dita casa e religio” Fernando II to the Infante Enrique, lloctenient de Catalunya. Córoba, 18 August 1484. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #12, 475-476; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #25, 58. 86

Fernando II to the community of Montserrat. Córdoba, 18 August 1484. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #11, 474; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #24, 57-58.

131

extraordinary rights of confession and absolution given to Boyl in May 1482, his position as president gained an unprecedented amount of authority over the religious affairs of the hermitage not found in the traditional loose and largely independent constitutional situation as it has been established during the course of the fifteenth century. Fernando II and Boyl in the end turned the office of president of the hermits on its head. What was to protect the hermits from outside influence and create equality within the community became an autocratic position of authority to enforce the practice of Observantinism at Montserrat. It is easy to see in these circumstances why some hermits rejected Boyl and his reforms. I have argued that the opposition between 1481 and 1484 responded directly to the issues of authority, which constantly demanded the intervention of the king and his lieutenants. This resistance even continued after the appointment of Joan de Peralta as commendam abbot in 1483. Their insistence on their rights and rejection of Boyl and de Peralta’s authority to reform the community – in addition to the king’s own inflexibility - ultimately encouraged some to leave the hermitage. Fernando II’s appeals to concord, charity, and unity not surprisingly had little effect on its stabilty and led to a fractured community living on the mountain of Montserrat. It is within this context of reform that Bernat Boyl selected Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione to educate the hermits in the practices of the eremitic life. Boyl, if he were to succeed in his reform, needed to find a better solution than simply using the authority of an irregularly acquired office and an extraordinary privilege to grant absolution within the community. He would need to depend on traditions of pastoral care to avoid resistance to the reform. For this reason, the new president of the hermits chose to educate the hermits in the ancient doctrines of the eremitic life by introducing Isaac of Nineveh as the true spiritual authority at Montserrat.

132

CHAPTER FOUR TRANSLATING REFORM: BERNAT BOYL AND ISAAC OF NINEVEH’S DE RELIGIONE

Introduction When Bernat Boyl informed Archpriest Pedro Zapata in 1489 as to why he translated Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione, he did so in two succinct sentences. He explained how the hermits requested the translation to learn about Isaac’s teachings and that he completed the translation during his first few years at Montserrat.1 Boyl’s straightforward explanation has led modern scholars to simply reiterate these two lines when discussing the translation’s early history at Montserrat. Cebrìa Baraut alone has added to the discussion by narrowing “the first years of my conversion” to a period prior to 13 February 1484, the date in the colophon of the sixteenth-century miscellany that contains the text (Appendix 1).2 Several questions therefore remain about why the hermits chose the De religione, where did Boyl find the Latin text to translate, and under what circumstance de he complete the translation.

Addressing these

questions, however, reveals how Boyl's translation responded to the conflicts between him and the hermits surrounding his authority to implement Observantine monasticism during the early

1

“Pedistes me senyor enlos dias passados, el nuestro Abbat ysach el qual yo por su marauillosa doctrina y ensenyança, a ruego de los padres, y hermanos desta nuestra montanya en el comienço de mi conuersion de latino hauia hecho Aragones, o si mas querres Castellano, no daquel mas apurado stilo dela corte, mas daquel llano que ala profession nuestra segun la gente, y tierra donde moramos paraque le entiendan satisfaze. ”Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, translated by Bernat Boyl (Sant Cugat del Vallès [Zaragoza]: Iohann Hurus, 29 November 1489), fol. 4r. Complete transcription is found in Appendix 4. 2

Cebrìa Baraut, “En torno al lugar donde fue impresa la traducción Castellana del Isaac ‘De religione’ de Bernardo Boil,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 37 (1962): 176.

133

reforms of the community ordered by Fernando II between 1481 and 1484. The translation of the De religione as an agent for reform served Boyl on several levels during his early years as president of the hermits. First, the De religione was a text closely tied to the royal family’s long-time interest in Observantinism from the time that it appeared in the Kingdoms of Mallorca and Aragón in the fourteenth century. Second, Isaac’s text circulated among Mallorcan hermits who had social connections with royal monasteries, the aristocracy and Llullism on the islands and Catalunya. Finally, Isaac of Nineveh had particular resonance among hermits who saw the venerable saint as a model for anchoritic life. Isaac’s treatise, in this sense, provided Boyl with a means to introduce his reforms and assert his authority at Montserrat through the practices of pastoral care based on reading, language, imagination and the use of manuscripts to convey Observantinism to his fellow recluses.

Isaac of Nineveh and the Spanish Kingdoms We know very little about the life of Isaac of Nineveh, also known as Isaac the Syrian (d. c. 700). Only two posthumous accounts describe aspects of his life as a bishop and a hermit: an anonymous, undated short biography written in Syria and a brief biographical sketch found in Isho’denah’s Book on Chastity.3 From these sources, it seems that Isaac was born in Beit Qatray (Qatar), on the western coast of the Persian Gulf. Around 676, perhaps at the Synod of Diran (Tarut), the Catholicos Mar Georges I of Selucia-Ctesiphon (661-680) ordained Isaac as bishop 3

I am here following summary of the current scholarship by Nardelli Cambraia and Janeras. César Nardelli Cambraia, “A difusão da obra de Isaac de Nínive em línguas ibero-românicas: breve notícia des tradiçiões portuguesa, espanhola e catalã,” in Performance, exílio, fronteiras: errâncias territoriais e textuats, edited by Graciela Ravetti and Márcia Arbex (Belo Horizonte: Departamento de Letras Românicas, Programa de PósGraduação em Letras, Estudos Literários, Faculdade de Letras, UFMG, 2002), 294-295; Sebastià Janeras. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive dans la Péninsula Ibérique,” in Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy, edited by Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 1 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007), 247-248.

134

of Nineveh, where he lived in the Monastery of Beit ‘Abe (Iraq). Weary of the world, he renounced his bishopric after five months and became a hermit at the Monastery of Mataut (Iran), whence he later moved to the Monastery of Rabban Shabur (Iran). At Rabban Shabur, Isaac began his literary career around 688, dying in the monastery circa 700 after several years as an anchorite living in the desert. Isaac’s fame derived from his homilies and writings on the religious life rather than his brief time as a biship. His Discourses or Collations (what Boyl called the De religione) became his most popular work, surviving in over forty manuscripts and four pre-1510 printed books in Western Europe alone. The Discourses were transmitted in two different traditions. The oriental tradition, written in the original Syriac used by Isaac, comprised 82 chapters or sermons, while the occidental tradition, written in Greek, only contained 42 chapters. The Greek version was translated at the end of the eighth or early ninth century by the monks Patrikios and Abramios at the Monastery of Mar Sabbas (Palestine). The Greek text eventually became the source used for the Latin translation during the Middle Ages. Scholars have hotly debated the origin of the Latin translation in Western Europe. The most convincing arguments favor the Celestine hermit Angelo Clareno da Cingoli (1250-1337), also known as Pietro de Fossombrone prior to 1294.4 Angelo Clareno professed as a Franciscan and became part of the radical Spiritualist movement that sought to return the Franciscan Order

4

Lydia von Auw first identified Clareno as the probable translator in her dissertation published in 1948, which she reaffirmed in her later more comprehensive work on Clareno. Lydia von Auw, Angelo Clareno et les sprituels italiens, Uomini e dottrine 25 (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1979), 245; Gabriel Bunge, “Mar Isaak von Ninive und sein ,,Buch der Gnade”,” Ostkirchliche Sudien 34/1 (1985): 4. Gribomont, in his own study, also assigned the translation to Clareno. Jean Gribomont, “La «Scala paradisi», Jean de Raïthou, et Ange Clareno,” Studia monastica 2 (1960): 350 and 352. Musto combined von Auw and Gribomont’s studies with a convincing codicological argument based on extant exemplars. Ronald G. Musto, “Angelo Clareno, O.F.M.: Fourteenth-Century Translator of the Greek Fathers. An Introduction and a Checklist of Manuscripts and Printings of his «Scala paradisi»,” Archivum franciscanum historicum 76 (1983): 226.

135

and church to the practice of absolute poverty in the imitation of Christ and the apostles.5 Unlike the Fraticelli and other Spiritualists, however, Clareno greatly valued eremiticism and advocated a return to a semi-eremitic life in line with the early and later career of Francis of Assisi. He eventually convinced the hermit Pope Celestine V (1294) to approve a new religious order, the Order of the Poor hermits of Celestine, upon returning from a four-year mission/exile in Armenia in 1294. The Celestines based their religious practices on an austere, observant, and eremitic reading of the Rule and Vita of Saint Francis often interpreted through the writings of the Greek fathers.6 Celestine’s renunciation of the papacy after a few months and the election of the order’s enemy Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1305) “encouraged” the Celestines to flee to the Latin controlled Island of Trixonia off the coast of Corinth, where they stayed between 1295 and 1297. Clareno and his brothers then moved to the Greek controlled Principality of Thessaly between 1297 and 1305.7 During this second exile, Clareno began his intensive study of Greek (acquired by a miracle according to tradition) and translated several Patristic ascetical and mystical works, including the works of John Climacus’ Scala Paradisi, Basil of Caesarea’s ascetical works, Pseudo-Macarius’s Questiones CL, also called the Verba S. Macarii, and possibly John Chrysostom’s Epistola 125 ad Cyriacum. Clareno’s knowledge of Greek, his translation of several similar texts, the circulation of these texts in the same codices, and his adherence to the

5

Decima L. Douie, The Nature and the Effect of the Heresy of the Fraticelli (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1932), 51. 6

Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 55; David Burr, The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), 69; Andrew Jotischky, The Carmelites and Antiquity: Mendicants and their Pasts in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 276-277. 7

Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 57-59; Burr, The Spiritual Franciscans, 95-96.

136

traditions of the Greek and desert fathers strongly suggests that he authored the translation of the De religione.8 Podestà argued against Clareno’s authorship, but supported the Spiritualist connection to the translation. He cited Archbishop John Peckham of Canterbury’s (1255-1292) one line quote of Isaac’s text in his Tractatus pauperis, or De perfectione religiosa, completed in 1270. Potestà also pointed to the Franciscan Petrus Jean Olivi’s (1248-1298) quotation of Peckham’s text in his Questiones octava perfectione evangelica, which in turn was quoted by Clareno in his Apologia.9 However, a single line does not prove Peckham as the translator, who even admitted that he knew very little Greek.10 It is also plausible that lines or florilegia of the text (e.g. Biblioteca Pública, Tarragona, MS 135), which began circulating in Europe given the increasing missions to the East, served as Peckham’s and Olivi’s source.

Unfortunately, The oldest extant Latin

manuscript does not settle the question.11 Being undated, the paleography may range from the late thirteenth to the early fourteenth century.12

8

Von Auw, Angelo Clareno, 60, 65-66 and 239-245; Musto, “Angelo Clareno, O.F.M.,” 218-219 and 223227; Gian Luca Potestà, Angelo Clareno dai poveri eremiti ai fraticelli, Nuovi studi storici 8 (Rome: Instituto Palazzo Borromini, 1990), 23-26 and 315-323; Benoît Gain, “Ange Clareno et les pères grecs,” in Angelo Clareno Francescano. Atti del XXXIV Convegno internazionale Assisi, 5-7 ottobre 2006, Atti dei convegni della Società Internazionale di Studi Francescani e del Centro Interuniversitario di Studi Francescani 17 (Spoleto: Fondazione Italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, 2007), 393-408. 9

Potestà, Angelo Clareno, 272-273 and 323 n. 22; Sabino Chialà, Dall’ascesi eremitica alla misericordia infinita. Ricerche su Isacco di Ninive e la sua fortuna, Biblioteca della rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa studi 14 (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 2002), 297 and 356. 10

John Peckham, Registrum epistolarum fratris Johannis Peckham, archiepiscopi cantuariensis, edited by Charles Trice Martin, 3 vols. (London: Longman, 1882-85), 3: xcvii. 11

Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, MS plut. 89 sup. 96; Sebastià Janeras, “Isaac de Nínive citat per Arnau de Vilanova,” Rivista catalana de teologia 31/1 (2006): 240. 12

Abrogio Traversari found a Greek copy of Isaac’s text (De prefectione vitae religiosae ) in the papal library in 1432, though its date and provenance is not known. Traversari had very little respect for Clareno as a translator, since he saw the Franciscan slavishly following the original. Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 70; Charles Singer, Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari (1386-1439) and Christian Antiquity (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1977), 141.

137

Recently, Sebastià Janeras showed how Arnau de Vilanova (1238/1240-1311) quoted several passages of Isaac’s text in his Apologia de versutiis atque peruersitatibus pseudotheologorum et religiosorum, completed at the end of 1302.13 Janeras conjectured that Vilanova, being a close friend of Olivi and ardent supporter of the Franciscan Spiritualists, acquired the text from him or another Franciscan while residing in Montpellier. However, Arnau’s citations do not disprove Clareno’s authorship. Clareno could have sent a manuscript to Italy given the frequent contacts that he and his fellow exile Liberato (d. 1306), the general of the Celestine Order, had with the peninsula. Such exchanges included books, such as those sent by Olivi to Clareno at Trixonia.14 Clareno also willingly lent his manuscripts to his supporters and friends, even sending his only manuscript of Basil’s Rules to the Franciscan Robert of Mileto with the condition that he return it as soon as possible as others wanted to make copies. 15 The exchange of manuscripts certainly fits with Clareno’s ideal that translations of Patristic Greek texts served his call for reform.16 The corpus of Clareno’s Greek translations had an important effect upon the growing concern for reform in the Latin West based on a renewed, often apocalyptic view of the vita apostolica.17 This was particularly true in the Spanish Kingdoms where Clareno’s close relationship with the Mallorcan, and by relation the Aragonese royal families cultivated its

13

Janeras, “Isaac de Nínive,” 240.

14

Burr, The Spiritual Franciscans, 92-93; Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 58-59 and 59 n. 2.

15

Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 69.

16

Jotischky, The Carmelites and Antiquity, 278-279.

17

Musto, “Angelo Clareno, O.F.M.,” 218-219; Jotischky, The Carmelites and Antiquity, 278-279.

138

dissemination.18 The close relations between Clareno and the royal family developed during the reign of Queen Esclarmonde de Foix (1250?-1299?) and her husband King Jaume II of Mallorca (1243-1311), who ardently promoted the reform views held by Clareno and the Franciscan Spiritualist Peter John Olivi.19 This support quickly became a family affair. For example, Jaume II protected and encouraged the anti-papal polemicist Arnau Vilanova, who served periodically as the court physician.20 The Infante Jaume de Mallorca (1274-1330), Jaume II’s first son, renounced the throne before his father died and became a Franciscan in 1299 after meeting Bishop Louis de Anjou of Toulouse (1274-1297), the son of King Charles de Anjou of Naples (1254-1309) and supporter of the Spiritualist movement. The Infanta Sança (1286-1345), Jaume II’s daughter, became one of the leading defenders of Clareno the Franciscan Spiritualists.21 After marrying King Robert I de Anjou of Naples (1277-1343) in 1304, she publicly defended Clareno and the Spiritualists, even convincing her husband on more than one occasion to grant Clareno and other Fratecilli sanctuary in their kingdom despite the accusations of heresy by the papacy and the Inquisition. 22 Sança and Clareno maintained a close relationship throughout their lives. This was not simply a political relationship, but literary and spiritual one as well. The queen wrote four epistolary defenses of Clareno and his brothers, the last in 1334 when she told the order to obey her just as 18

Ronald G. Musto, “Franciscan Joachimism at the Court of Naples, 1309-1345: A New Appraisal,” Archivum francicanum historicum 90/3-4 (1997): 455. 19

Roland G. Musto, “Queen Sancia of Naples (1286-1345) and the Spiritual Franciscans,” Women of the Medieval World: Essay in Honor of John H. Mundy, edited by Julius Kirschner and Suzanne F. Wemple (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985), 182-183. Jaume II’s father, Jaume I (1208-1276) de Aragón, abdicated his throne in 1276 and became a Cistercian. 20

Musto, “Queen Sancia of Naples,” 182.

21

Musto, “Queen Sancia of Naples,” 180.

22

Sança met Robert while he was entrusted with the care of the Franciscans in Catalunya while held as a hostage to the king of Aragón. Musto, “Queen Sancia,” 183; Idem, “Franciscan Joachimism,” 456.

139

a mother to her sons.23 The Queen, who asked for dispensation to break her wedding vows in 1317, followed her brother and professed as a Poor Clare in 1344 at the double monastery of Santa Maria della Croce, a center for the emerging practice of Observantinism.24 It was her brother the Infante Felip de Mallorca (1288-1340), Jaume II’s third son, who had the most personal, direct relationship with Clareno. Felip first met Clareno at the Council of Vienne in the winter of 1311-1312. The two met again in early 1313, when Clareno, at the request of Cardinal Giacomo Colonna de Santa Maria in Via Lata (1250-1318), journeyed to Mallorca to visit and minister to the infante.25 There, Felip and Clareno became close friends, with the Celestine hermit becoming the infante’s life-long spiritual director. As his friend and spiritual director, Clareno composed several letters instructing Felip in the practices of Celestine spirituality and Franciscan Spiritualism. These exchanges continued after Felip renounced his regency in 1328 and professed as a Franciscan in Naples, where Clareno helped him with one major sermon defending the Franciscan Spiritualists.26 In this context, it would not be unusual for Clareno to provide Felip with copies of his works and translations as part of his religious formation, even perhaps leaving a copy in the royal library while traveling in Mallorca.

23

The letter from 1334 is a combination of three different letters, one from 1316 to Michael of Cesena, one from 1329 to the Franciscans attending the general chapter in Paris, and one from 1331 sent to Gerald Odonis, the Franciscan Minister General. All three letters were collected and resent in 1334 with a new introduction and conclusion to the general chapter at Asissi. Musto translated the 1334 letter in Musto, “Queen Sancia,” 207-214; Musto, “Franciscan Joachimism,” 454-456. 24

Musto, “Queen Sancia,” 183, 185 and 189.

25

Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 62-63; Musto, “Queen Sancia,” 195-196; Von Auw, Angelo Clareno, 60 and 111; Potestà, Angelo Clareno, 43, 45 and 47. 26

Felip’s popularity was such that Fraticelli literature saw him as the “Angelic Pope of the Last Days.” Musto, “Queen Sancia,” 197; Musto, “Franciscan Joachimism,” 447. Others denounced Felip as the Anti-Christ. Douie, The Nature and the Effect, 251 and 256.

140

Unfortunately, we have no direct evidence that the Celestine hermit shared this treatise with the infante orthat he served as the source for the text’s diffusion in Mallorca. Several members of the royal family supported Clareno and had interest in reading his works. Sança, in the least, had ample opportunity to send a copy to Felip or one of her monastic foundations. Even the Valencian doctor Arnau Vilanova possessed a manuscript at one time, but whether this came to him via Clareno or another Franciscan is not known. The text certainly circulated among intellectuals in the Kingdoms of Aragon in the latter half of the fourteenth century, when the Franciscan reformer and theologian Francesc Eixmensis (1340?-1409?) cited the text in his works.27 Regardless of how the De religione exactly entered the Mallorcan and Aragonese Kingdoms, there is little doubt that it originated within the context of the early Observantine reforms favored by the Mallorcan and Aragonese monarchy. This brief reconstruction of the early diffusion of the De religione potentially includes the most famous Mallorcan theologian of the central Middle Ages, Ramon Llull (1232-1315). Janeras conjectured that Llull possibly brought the De religione to Mallorca.28 On the one hand, Llull, like Felip, met Clareno at the Council of Vienne. Lull and Clareno shared similar visions for reforming religious orders by making them resemble “apostolic hermits.”29 Both also had close relations with the Mallorcan monarchy, with Jaume I founding the Llullist College at Miramar in 1276.30 In his own life and writings, there is not doubt that Llull valued eremiticism as the highest form of religious life. His literary hero Blaquerna retired from the papacy and 27

Janeras. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,” 259.

28

Janeras. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,” 254.

29

Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, “Some Notes on Lullian Hermits in Majorca Saec. XIII-XVIII,” Studia monastica 6/2 (1964): 305. 30

Hillgarth, “Some Notes,” 319.

141

became a hermit.31 However, Janeras pointed out that Llull never cited Isaac in any of his works, leading one to believe that he may have known the text, but did not have enough interest in it for his own writings. Llull’s lack of interest in the De religione did not transfer to the Llullist community in Mallorca. Evidence from one extant manuscript and two early fifteenth-century inventories show how the De religione circulated in Mallorca among Llullist hermits and other religious communities during the fourteenth and fifteenth century. Our earliest evidence survives in a fourteenth-century Latin miscellany of devotional works, Palma de Mallorca, Biblioteca Pública del Estado, MS 529. The manuscript has no provenance, but perhaps should be assigned to the manuscript recorded in the library inventory of the Cistercian Monastery of La Real de Mallorca completed on 27 March 1386.32

The connection is enticing in that La Real had a close

relationship with the Mallorcan monarchy and Llullist hermits at Miramar, taking control of the hermitage after 1301.33 However, we should not draw a pure connection between Palma de Mallorca, Biblioteca Pública del Estado, MS 529 and Boyl’s translation. A comparison with Boyl’s text and chapter organization show that it does not belong to the same stemma, as it possesses textual variants, a unique organization, and identifies the author as “Abbatis Isaac de Siria” rather than Isaac of Spoleto as Boyl believed.34

31

Hillgarth, “Some Notes,” 305; Erhard W. Platzeck, “La vida eremítica en las obras del Beato Raimundo Lulio,” Revista de espiritualidad 1 (1942), 65. 32

Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, Readers and Books in Majorca, 1229-1550, 2 vols. (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1991), 2: IV, A, #142, 332. 33

Hillgarth, “Some Notes,” 319.

34

“Y porque aquello que con tanta sabiduria trabajo, y con tal diligecia obro conla flaqueza dela humana condicion no peligrasse con tanta fee y caridat compuso este libro que segun la honrra que avn hoy enla ciudat despoleto en italia a sus huessos y reliquias se faze, en cuyos montes del leuante venido fizo su penitencia.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 4r.

142

Two manuscripts recorded in the 1414 library inventory of the Augustinian Convent of Puig de Pollença show the connection between eremiticism and the De religione that would resurface at Montserrat. Puig de Pollença originated as a semi-eremitic community for women devoted to an austere form of anchoritic life near a group of likeminded male Llullist hermits. The community appeared in the 1350s, but after twenty years in the desert became an enclosed Augustinian convent in 1371.35 The community had a fairly large library by the beginning of the fifteenth-century. In 1414, their inventory recorded thirty-eight books, including three Llullist treatises and two copies of the De religione. One manuscript of the De religione belonged to Sor Endreva, who gave the book along with seven others to Sor Eulàlia Puigdorfila, a member of a leading noble family.36 The other manuscript’s owner is not known, though it was bound with Pope Gregory I’s Dialogues.37 Interestingly, both copies of the De religione were written in Catalan. On the surface this seems insignificant since Boyl used a Latin, not a Catalan text to translate his work into Castilian. However, as discussed below, Boyl’s translation formed part of the stemma that included older Catalan translations distinct from the other vernacular and Latin versions that circulated in the Spanish and Portuguese Kingdoms. 38 In the least, we see an emerging interest in combining eremitic life, Llullism and the reading the De religione at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

35

Hillgarth has identified the community as having Llullist sympathies through its library and relations with local Llullist hermits. Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 16 and 27; Hillgarth, “Some Notes,” 321-322. 36

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 2: X, 4, 20.

37

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 2: X, 4, 20. Pairing Isaac and Gregory was not uncommon, since many readers identified Abba Isaac as Isaac of Spoleto who appeared in Book Three of the Dialogues. Janeras. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,” 250. 38

Janeras. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,” 257-260.

143

The relationship between Llullist eremiticism and the De religione also appeared among male Carthusians and hermits. A library inventory completed for the Charterhouse of Valldemosa between 1411 and 1412 recorded a vernacular (surely Catalan) manuscript of the De religione in its collection.39 The charterhouse was a royal palace prior to becoming a monastery in 1399, when Martí I de Aragón (1356-1410) converted the building into a Carthusian monastery.40 The community likely inherited the royal library given the need for books for the new foundation. It took three years for the monastery to acquire another collection, a gift of thirty-two books in 1402 from the Charterhouse of Portaceli in Valencia.41 Portaceli’s inventory, however, does not mention Isaac’s treatise, suggesting that the De religione came from the royal library, perhaps dating back to time of Felip de Mallorca. More interesting than the Carthusians’ possession of the manuscript is their decision to lend the copy to the Llullist hermit Pere Valero of La Santa Trinidat de Miramar. Nicholau Mora, a fellow hermit who lived with Valero and earlier at the Charterhouse, witnessed the exchange.42 Considering Valero, Mora and the nuns of Puig de Pollença, we can see a certain mentalité surrounding the use of the De religione among Llullist eremitic communities in the early part of the fifteenth century.43 One can draw interesting parallels between Boyl and the hermits of Mallorca. We know that Boyl was a true Llullist aficionado like the hermits at Miramar and Puig de Pollença. The details of his infatuation with Llullism are well known and will be discussed in the next chapter. 39

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 15, 27 and 2: III, B #6, 321.

40

Hillgarth, “Some Notes,” 319 and 325.

41

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 15.

42

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 27, 209, 251 and 2: III, B #6, 321. Mora likely lived at the monastery as early as 1395. Hillgarth, “Some Notes,” 325-326. 43

On the aspect of mentalité and translation, see Paul Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators: The Social Meaning of Language Study in Trecento Tuscany,” Viator 25 (1994): 292

144

Here, we can summarize a few salient points to see Boyl’s Llullist connections. We know, for example, that Boyl desired to study under the Llullist master Pere Daguí (d. 1500), the chair of Llullist studies in Palma de Mallorca.44 The hermit also had a close, perhaps lifelong friendship with the Llullist grammarian Arnau Descós, who also served as jurat in Palma de Mallorca and studied at Naples with Lluís de Santàngel.45 Descós, a friend of Daguí, actively supported Boyl’s Llullist studies and offered him a place to stay at his home in Palma so that he could study at Daguí’s school. Descós even suggested Llull’s De consolatione eremitae (Libre de consolació d’ermità) as part of his religious formation after a group of likeminded Llullist devotees gathered at the Cortes of Zaragoza in 1489 to hear Daguí speak.46 Admittedly, any direct connection between the Llullist hermits and Boyl with regard to the De religione is purely a matter of conjecture, much more so as the hermitage at Miramar seems to have been abandoned from 1475 to 1485, the years when Boyl would likely have encountered the text. Perhaps Etienne Eussem, the seventeenth-century librarian of Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar (1567-1626), perceived such a connection when he could not decide whether Ramon Llull or Bernat Boyl wrote the text when cataloguing the manuscript for his patron’s collection.47

44

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 221-224; Maria Barceló i Crespí and Gabriel Ensenyat i Pujol, El nous horitzons culturals a Mallorca al final de l’edat mitjana, Menjauents 36 (Palma de Mallorca: Edicions Documenta Balear, 2000), 113-114. 45

Barceló i Crespí and Ensenyat i Pujol, El nous horitzons culturals, 114; José María Quadrado, “Arnaldo Descors y fray Bernal Boyl. Ilustraciones biográficas, políticas y literarias,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 20 (1892): 114. 46

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 222. The text was originally written for hermits at Messina in 1313.

47

“Contenta Reverendo Frai Buil o REmond Lull dela vida contemplatiua.” Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795, fol. 1r.

145

If we turn to the mainland, we see a continuation of the connection between the De religione, reform and the Aragonese monarchy. Fortunately we have extant manuscripts in addition to documentary records that support these relationships. The most important evidence comes from the library of Queen María de Aragón (1401-1458), the wife of King Alfonso V de Aragón (1396-1458). An inventory of the queen’s library at the time of her death records two Catalan copies of the De religione in her collection.48 One manuscript, inventory #17, is lost. However, scholars have identified San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial MS N-I-16 as inventory #11 in the queen’s inventory.49 The Escorial manuscript proves important for several reasons. First, there is a direct textual relationship between its chapter organization and Boyl’s translation. This includes the Latin text used by Boyl, which was printed by Diego de Gumiel in 1497.50 To this, group we can also add a second surviving Catalan manuscript that belonged to Fernando Colón (1488-1539), the son of Admiral Cristóbal Colón (c. 1451-1506) with whom Boyl sailed to the Americas on the second voyage.51 If we look at these manuscripts together, a preliminary stemma shows the relationship between the various versions of the De religione that form part of what Janeras has identified as the Catalan language group.52 We should recognize here that the Catalan texts in all 48

Inventari dels libres de la Senyora Donna María, reina de les Sicilies e de Aragó, Colección de documentos históricos publicados en la Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 1 (Madrid, Imprenta y estereotipia de M. Rivadeneyra, 1872; reprint, Valencia: París-Valencia, 1992), #11 and #17. 49

Eusebio-Julián Zarco-Bacas y Cuevas, ed. Catálogo de los manuscritos catalanes, gallegos y portugueses de la Biblioteca de El Escorial, 3 vols. (Madrid: Imprenta Helenica, 1924-1929.), 1: #109, 54-60 and 109-130. 50

Isaac of Nineveh, Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtulis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes (Barcelona: Diego de Gumiel, 1497). 51

José Francisco Saéz Guillen, Catálogo de Manuscritos de la Biblioteca Colombina de Sevilla, 2 vols. (Sevilla: Institución Colombina, 2002), 1: 199-200. 52

Janeras, “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,” 257-260.

146

probability came from earlier translations, like those found on Mallorca or others like the one belonging to Guillem Vall, a priest of the Cathedral of Barcelona, in June 1373.53 Illustration IV.1. Working Stemma of the Catalan Group of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione *

L Latin

*

E mid. 15th c. Catalan B 13-2-1484 Sant Cugat del Vallès Castilian

P c. 1502-1503 Montserrat? Castilian *

B P * C E G H *

L M S *

*M mid. 15th c. Catalan S 15th c. Catalan

*

H 29-11-1489 Zaragoza Castilian

C

G 1497 Barcelona, via Montserrat Latin

= Original translation completed by Boyl at Sant Cugat del Vallès on 13 February 1484. = Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795. = Catalan source = El Escorial, Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, MS N-I-16. María de Aragón, Inventory, #11. = Isaac of Nineveh, Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtulis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes (Barcelona: Diego de Gumiel, 1497). = Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, translated by Bernat Boyl (Sant Cugat del Vallès [Zaragoza]: [Iohann Hurus], 29 November 1489). = Latin source = María de Aragón, Inventory # 17. = Sevilla, Biblioteca Colombina y Capitular, MS 5-3-42. 53

Notary entry made by Pere Borell. Barcelona, June 1373. Janeras, “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,”

258-259.

147

Queen María’s two Catalan manuscripts continued the link between the monarchy, the De religione and the Observantine reforms within the Aragonese kingdoms.

María, as

mentioned in previous chapters, was an ardent supporter of Observantine reform while she governed as lloctenient of Catalunya in the absence of her husband Alfonso V. These reforms extended to the Benedictines when, for example, she aided the reform of San Felíu de Guixols, which in turn helped introduce Observantinism at Montserrat.54 The connections between Isaac and the royal family were not unique to María. Her sister-in-law, Queen Leonor de Aragón of Portugal (1402-1445), returned to Aragón with a Portuguese version of the De religione belonging to the Infante Fernão de Portugal (1402-1433), which, although obtained from the Reformed Observantine Cistercian Monastery of Alcobaça, was bequeathed to the monastery of San Francesc de Lleida as part of the infante’s will.55 The presence of these two manuscripts in the queen’s library has led historians to speculate that Boyl acquired his Latin text from one of the royal collections. The strongest evidence supporting this thesis is found in Montserrat’s close relationship with Queen María de Aragón. Several letters exchanged between the queen and the monastery show Montserrat’s involvement in the acquisition and translation of several books for her library in the 1420s and 1440s, some of which appear in her inventory. Four letters from 1420 are especially revealing. 56 54

Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523),” Analecta sacra Tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 334-335. 55

Nardelli Cambraia, “A difusão da obra de Isaac de Nínive,” 303-304. The theory is that of Maria Helena Lopes de Castro, “‘Leal conselheiro’. Itinerário do manusrito,” Penélope 16 (1995): 109-124. 56

Cebrià Baraut, “Els Manuscrits de l’Antigua Biblioteca de Montserrat (Segles XI-XVIII),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1955): 341-342; Anselm Albareda, “Intorno alla scuola di orazione metodica stabilita a Monserrato dall’Abate Garsias Jiménez de Cisneros (1493-1510),” Archivum historicum Societatis Iesu 25 (1956): 262-263.

148

On February 20, María thanked the priest Guillem Ramon for sending her a book and asked for another entitled Llibre de vices e virtuts.57 On the same day, she wrote to another priest, Jaume Prats, asking for a copy of the Llibre de Confessió.58 The queen wrote two more letters to Father Ramon later that year. In March, she informed him that she received the Catalan translation of Boethius’ Llibre de consolació when she returned another book to him.59 Eight months later, she reminded the priest to send an unnamed book that he had promised to deliver to her. These requests continued into the 1440s, when Fray Bernat Vilalta traveled to Italy with the support of the queen to convince the monastery of Monte Cassino to send monks to reform Montserrat according to the principals of Benedictine Observantinism.60 On 26 January 1443, a letter described how Bernat Vilalta brought the Trattato della Pazienza from Naples for the queen, where it was translated into Catalan by an unnamed monk from Montserrat who had spent some time living in Italy.61 Vilalta also returned with a copy of Domenico Cavalca’s Specchio della Croce, which was translated into Catalan (Epill de Creu or Spill de la Creu) by the monk Pere Busquets from the monastery of San Felíu de Guixols “who was in Italy for fifteen years.”62 Vilalta’s stay in Naples throws another wrinkle into the problem. Naples, we remember, was controlled by the Mallorcan (Aragonese) royal family, which under Queen Sança and the Infante Felip promoted Clareno and his reforms. Given María’s interest in devotional works from 57

Inventari dels libres, #30; Felix Torres Amat, Memorias para ayudar a formar un diccionario crítico de los escritores catalanes y dar alguna idea de la antigua y moderna literatura de Cataluña (Barcelona: J. Verdaguer, 1836), 526-527. 58

Inventari dels libres, #38.

59

Inventari dels libres, #34.

60

G.M. Bertini, Studi e ricerche ispaniche, Pubblicazioni dell'Università cattolica del S. Cuore. Ser. 4, Scienze filologiche, 39 (Milano, Vita e pensiero, 1942), 47-51. 61

Inventari dels libres, #37.

62

Inventari dels libres, #48; Baraut, “Els Manuscrits,” 341-342 n. 19.

149

Naples, one wonders whether or not she requested a Catalan translation made from a Latin text brought to Montserrat. Janeras pointed to the circulation of the De religione within the Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua as another possible means for Montserrat to acquire the manuscript.63 Santa Giustina had three copies, and more might have existed in other monasteries in the congregation.64 Janeras, for this reason, suggested that Joan de Peralta, who previously served as the abbot of La Grotta in Sicily and had contacts with the Italian congregation, brought the manuscript to the monastery.

However, this seems unlikely.

If one accepts a Neapolitan

connection, Vilalta (who acquired and translated spiritual treatises for the queen) or Abbot Antoni de Avinyó i de Moles (d. 1450) (who had adopted the customs of Santa Giustina de Padua at Montserrat) provide better candidates than Peralta for bringing the De religione to the monastery. One can make several objections against Montserrat’s possession of a Latin copy of the De religione prior to Boyl’s arrival. Queen María’s inventory does not identify either copy of the De religione in her library as coming from Montserrat, where other entries recorded the origin of the text. Moreover, all of the texts that the queen received from Montserrat were recorded at the end of the inventory (30, 34, 37, 38 and 48), not at the beginning with the entries of Isaac’s treatise (11 and 17). This may suggest that the manuscripts were either acquired from another source or that they existed as part of a collection inherited upon becoming queen. Even if the queen received her translations from the monastery, it would be very unlikely for a monastic scriptorium with Montserrat’s reputation to neglect making a copy for its own library. 63

Janeras, “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive,” 265.

64

Giovanna Cantoni Alzati, ed., La Biblioteca di S. Giustina di Padova: libri e cultura presso i benedettini padovani in età umanistica, Medioevo e umanesimo 4 (Padova: Antenore, 1982), #142, 62, # 200, 72, and #287, 85.

150

In this case, it makes little sense for Boyl to translate the text, as 1) a Catalan text already existed at Montserrat, and 2) the monks already had a reputation for translating texts from the Latin into the vernacular an so could have provided the hermits with a copy prior to his arrival. We can also discount the possibility that Montserrat acquired a copy from one of the other manuscripts circulating in the kingdom, since the Catalan stemma have a distinct chapter organization and text from the other Portuguese, Castilian and Latin versions. Finally, Albareda’s, Baraut and Colombás’ studies of Montserrat have shown little contact with Llullist hermits and their milieu in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Boyl certainly had access to several royal libraries during his service as secretary and ambassador for Kings Juan II (1397-1479), Fernando II (1452-1516) and Archbishop Juan de Aragón (1458-1475) of Zaragoza. The presence of the two manuscripts belonging to María and the third Portuguese royal manuscript brought to Lleida in the 1440s at least shows enough popularity at the royal court that it may have come to the attention of Boyl as he pondered entering the eremitic life while serving as secretary to the king. If so, it would be reasonable to consider that Boyl translated the Catalan text back into Latin (see stemma above). Translating vernacular manuscripts into Latin was a common practice during the Middle Ages, particularly with ascetic or devotional treatises. Citing just one example, Prior García Jiménez de Cisneros of Montserrat (d. 1510) had his Directorio delas horas canonicas and Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual translated into Latin in 1499 or 1500 in preparation for their printing in 1500. If we accept either premise, Boyl’s use of Isaac’s treatise as a book for personal devotion has a stronger connection to the reading habits and Observantine ideals of the Aragonese royal family than previously realized by scholars of Montserrat.

151

Without additional evidence, no definitive answer can be reached as to the origin of the Latin text Boyl used to make his translation. On the whole, I favor Boyl’s possession of the text prior to coming to Montserrat. Boyl’s own personal interest in eremiticism, relationship with Llullism and close contacts with a royal family interested in Observantinism suggests that he either acquired the manuscript through his Llullist friends in Mallorca or one of the royal libraries. In this scenario, the De religione served as a personal book of religious instruction as he entered his own eremitic life. It helps explain why the hermits suddenly appealed to Boyl for the translation. He simply used the text as part of his religious instruction of the hermits as they began practicing Observantinism. The personal and pastoral came together, providing Boyl with a means to communicate his ideals through a work that supported the message of his reforms (as it did for Clareno), while at the same time displacing the demands for a new eremitic life away from Boyl and onto an unimpeachable authority on anchoriticism.65 Boyl therefore had a model abbot to instruct the hermits in Observance, challenges to his authority and his lack of experience when he began his reforms at Montserrat.

Isaac, Authority, and the Translation of the De Religione Bernat Boyl faced several problems when reforming the hermitage. The most obvious, as discussed in the last chapter, was the hermits’ refusal to grant Boyl the authority to reform the community. Several hermits rebelled against the new hermit when, much to their chagrin, Fernando II facilitated his election to the office of president of the hermits. This, combined with their distaste for Observantinism, led several to abandon the mountain in the fall of 1483

65

Gehl speaks to the personal that always underlay the translation. Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators,” 291.

152

(Chapter Three), an act that exasperated the king and led the author of the Liber reformationis to quip that the hermits’ reform was “none too easy” when compared to the monks of Montserrat.66 Boyl understood the problems of authority as only one part of the general problems he confronted at the hermitage. The hermits, mostly lay religious, lacked an adequate knowledge of Latin, and thus had less access to the texts available for reading in the community. Boyl commented on this situation when he wrote to Zapata, saying how he translated the text “from Latin to Aragonese, or if you prefer Castilian, at the request of the fathers and brothers of this our mountain at the beginning of my religious life.” This was done so that the hermits could better understand his “wondrous teachings and beliefs.”67 This was a community problem, not just a dilemma for the hermits. A lost translation of Pseudo-Bonaventure’s Vita Christi by an unknown monk at Montserrat during Boyl’s reforms responded to these same concerns.68 Even Fernando II recognized the problems language posed for the reform. In his attempt to convince the Congregation of Santa Giustina to help his reform in 1487, the king remarked how the reform could not “be achieved in the least without the presence of some monks, who are not only highly

66

“Cum difficultate non modica ad anachoretarum probatissimum et perfectissimum monarchorum genus reformavimus.” Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, “Els abats montserratins del segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati,” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 164-165. 67

“El nuestro Abbat ysach el qual yo por su marauillosa doctrina y ensenyança, a ruego de los padres, y hermanos desta nuestra montanya en el comienço de mi conuersion de latino hauia hecho Aragones, o si mas querres Castellano.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 2v. 68

Baraut suggested the Boyl translated the text, but I find that unlikely. Baraut, “Els manuscrits,” 351. There are also four separate devotional works copied by the same scribe and found in the early sixteenth-century manuscript that contains Boyl’s translation. Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795, fols. 123v-154r (Appendix 1). Baraut suggested that these were possibly Boyl’s works. However, the language and are inferior to the quality of prose found in his letters. There is no other evidence to support this opinion outside the incidental collation of the treatises with Boyl’s translation. It remains in doubt as to whether or not the manuscript was even completed at Montserrat. Cebrià Baraut, ed., García Jiménez de Cisneros, Obras Completas, 2 vols., Scripta et Documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 1: 16-17; Bernabé Dalmau, “Les relations entre les moines et le ermites de Montserrat de 1300 à 1500,” Studia monastica 14/1 (1972): 132.

153

trained in the Observance of their rule, but also who are of the same language.”69 Even prior to the reform, Bernat Vilalta, Queen María’s bibliophile, translated the Rule of Saint Benedict for Montserrat around 1440 to help the non-Latin proficient monks to learn the Rule.70 The problem of education was severe enough to send a master of theology, a certain Aleix, to provide instruction at Montserrat.71 The situation would continue even after Boyl’s departure, when the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid led by Prior Jiménez de Cisneros specifically introduced bilingual books of religious instruction, including their constitutions and ceremonials, for both the hermits and the monks. Problems with Latin literacy in male religious, as opposed to vernacular literacy, were not unique to Montserrat in the fifteenth century. The subject as a whole has received little attention in comparison to the studies of women’s religious communities and the laity. To my knowledge, no formal study of vernacular reading and composition of vernacular texts among

69

“Sed in quoniam fieri minime potest sine aliquorum monachorum presencia, qui non solum in obseruancia ipsius regule optime sint instituti, sed etiam qui sint eiusdem lingue.” Fernando II to the Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua. Antonio de la Torre, “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): #22, 494; Idem, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales de los Reyes Católicos, 6 vols. (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Patronato Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, 1949-1966), 2: #71, 424; Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): #33, 66-67. 70

Baraut, “Els manuscrits,” 341-342.

71

Fernando asked the Pope Innocent VIII to set aside benefices in the diocese of Gerona and Barcelona worth sixty Barcelonan pounds for Aleix, who seems to have been a master of theology, instructor in Barcelona, and the text corrector of Aegidius Columna Romanus’s De regimine principium. Fernando II to Medina, royal protonotary and ambassador in Rome. Córdoba, 6 April 1487. De la Torre, “Algunos datos,” #19, 490; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #35, 68. The translation had possibly been recently completed by Arnau Stranyol. The edition and translation was published twice, first in 1480 and later in 1498. Aegidius Columna Romanus, Lo libre del regiment dels princeps, edited by Aleix de Barcelona and translated by Arnau Stranyol(?) (Barcelona: Nicolaus Spindler for Joan Çacoma, 2 November 1480). Interestingly, the second edition was printed by Iohann Luschner, the printer hired by García Jiménez de Cisneros for the publishing program initiated in 1498 at Montserrat. Aegidius Columna Romanus, Lo libre del regiment dels princeps, edited by Aleix de Barcelona and translated by Arnau Stranyol(?) (Barcelona: Iohann Luschner, for Frank Ferber, 22 October 1498). Spindler’s edition was later found in the library of Montserrat. Anselm M. Albareda, “Lul·lisme a Montserrat al segle XVè. L’ermità Bernat Boil,” Estudios lulianos 9 (1965): 7.

154

male Benedictine communities has been completed. There is no doubt that the lack of Latin literacy was seen as problem given the necessity of reciting the Divine Office and reading the Bible. However, we should beware to see vernacular literacy, as opposed to Latin literacy, through the lens of decay.72 Rather, vernacular literacy was encouraged, and seen as a way to cultivate a deeper spiritual life to reform the soul and the monastery, as much as leading to higher learning in one of the Benedictine colleges located at the Universities of Paris, Oxford or Salamanca. Popes Gregory IX (1227-1241) and Clement V (1305-1314), for example, supported vernacular religious works and expositions of the Rule to overcome the inability of many monks to be able to understand the rule, thus fostering a rather lax life in the monastery.73 Many fourteenth and fifteenth-century Observantine reformers saw vernacular education in a positive light and made it an official policy within their congregations.74 In this way, Boyl’s translation provided the hermits with a positive form of reading agency allowing them to effectively produce the text with him rather than having it imposed on them, thus creating a measure of stability between the translator and the readers of the text despite his insistence upon reform.75

72

David N. Bell, “The Libraries of Religious Houses in the Late Middle Ages,” in The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, edited by Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Weber, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 1: 135. 73

Geneviève Hasenohr, “Note sur une traduction française de la Règle de Saint Benoît à Saint-Germaindes-Prés (XIVe-XVIe siécles),” in Le Livre et l'historien: études offertes en l’honneur du Professeur Henri-Jean Martin, edited by Frédéric Barbier, Annie Parent-Charon, François Dupuigrenet et alia., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, IVe section, Sciences historiques et philologiques, Histoire et civilization du livre 24 (Geneva: Droz: 1997), 26-27. 74

Barry Collett, Italian Benedictine Scholars of the Reformation: The Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua (Oxford: Oxfored University Press, 1985), 52. 75

Barry Collett, “Holy Expectations: The Female Monastic Vocation in the Diocese of Winchester on the Eve of the Reformation,” in The Culture of Medieval English Monasticism, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion 30 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 2007), 147; Felicity Riddy, “‘Women Talking about the Things of God’: A Late Medieval Subculture,” in Women and Literature in Britain c. 1100-1500, edited by Carol M. Meale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 107.

155

The positive value Boyl placed on translation can be seen in his interpretation of the vernacular as a means to cultivate humility within the hermit. He informed Zapata how “I had made [the translation] from Latin into Aragonese, or if you will Castilian; not the more elegant style of the court, but the plain [style] (which is suitable for our profession) of the people and land where we live so that they may understand him.”76 On the one hand, the rejection of the high language of the court emphasized a withdrawal from the elegant trappings of the world, which in Boyl’s case was no mere rhetorical flourish given his years at the court prior to his profession. On the other hand, the acceptance of a “vulgar” discourse created an association between the hermits and the humility of the common people. It reflects the value of humility drawn by monks from the Gospel of Luke “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11).” Boyl’s decision to use a “vulgar” form Castilian created an explicit cultivation of monastic humility by establishing a linguistic bond with peasants modeled on the precepts of the Bible. The appropriateness of the vernacular depended as much on its ability to communicate an accessible text as on its ability to increase the humility within the hermit proper to his religious vocation. Boyl, despite the authority vested in him as translator, framed the translation in such as way that he stood on equal ground with the other hermits who could not read the Latin version of the De religione. The value given to the simplicity of the vernacular over Latin became a reform mantra among many religious reformers in the fifteenth century. Writers such as Jean Gerson (13631429), the chancellor of the University Paris, extolled the piety of semiliterate simple folk (simplices) as counter to the non-pious, overly educated theologians practicing nothing more 76

“De latino hauia hecho Aragones, o si mas querres Castellano, no daquel mas apurado stilo dela corte, mas daquel llano que ala profession nuestra segun la gente, y tierra donde moramos paraque le entiendan satisfaze.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 2v.

156

than classroom theology. Reading in the simple language of the vernacular provided the simple person with easier devotion to God during contemplation (provided of course it was translated by a theologian).77 Members from the Augustinian Congregation of Windesheim likewise equated the vernacular with the simple path one takes in line with the apostles during one’s approach to God.78 Within the Observantine Benedictine Congregation of Melk, both monks and nuns were encouraged to read vernacular devotional treatises. Melk’s reformers even supported making copies of vernacular, and not just Latin manuscripts as a spiritual exercise. 79 The vernacular became a leveling agent within a community by removing conceptions of rank and authority based on levels of literacy and access to the text.80 Boyl’s interest in removing rank as measure of authority found its greatest expression in casting Isaac as the true superior over the hermits. Boyl described Isaac as the true superior of the Mountain of Montserrat in an ingenious use of traditional monastic social theology and mimesis. This decision had practical benefits for the reformer. Boyl had little experience as a hermit and none as a religious trained in the practices of Observantinism. The lack of experience as much as his claims to authority placed him in a weak position to expect the hermits’ obedience and their willingness to accept the new devotional principals he wished to put in place 77

Jean Charlier Gerson, Oeuvres completes, edited by Palemon Glorieux, 10 vols. (Paris: Desclée, 1960), 7: 16; Brian Patrick McGuire, “Late Medieval Care and Control of Women: Jean Gerson and his Sisters,” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 102/1 (1997): 29-30. 78

Werner Williams-Krapp, “The Erosion of a Monopoly: German Religious Literature in the Fifteenth Century,” in The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval Religious Literature, edited by Renate BlumenfeldKosinski, Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Bradley Warren (New York: Palgrave, 2002), 240-241. 79

Williams-Krapp, “The Erosion of a Monopoly,” 242.

80

Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators,” 300; Elizabeth Schirmer, “Reading lessons at Syon Abbey: The Myroure of Oure Ladye and the Mandates of Vernacular Theology,” in Voices in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middle Ages, edited by Linda Olson and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), 348.

157

at Montserrat. Boyl could therefore claim that the teachings he introduced came directly from Isaac’s authority as a venerable abbot and not that of a novice superior given his position as president by the authority of the king and not that of his fellow hermits. Isaac’s spiritual authority, according to Boyl, came from several years practicing penitential asceticism on his mountain.81 No particular form of asceticism legitimized his authority as it did with more famous desert ascetics like Simeon Stylites’ life on his pillar or Anthony’s twenty years in his tomb. Rather, Abba Isaac practiced a comprehensive asceticism to work the earth of the heart and remove the thorns and brambles born from the weakness of the flesh. Without these “labors of the desert”, according to Boyl, he could not have pacified his anger or removed pride from his soul. Practicing fasting, chastity, poverty, bodily mortification, and prayer in solitude fostered the purity of heart needed to fully contemplate God.82 The “holy old man’s (el sancto viejo)” perseverance in the desert produced the gift of tears, the visible sign of God’s grace working in one’s heart. Such grace produced responsibility, and as a result, Isaac, led by Christian charity, returned from his solitude to share his ascetic practices for the salvation of others.83 Isaac’s writing became an example, a source for his experience and his authority, since the De religione could not have been completed without fulfilling his life as a penitent.84 The hermits should in fact “not call this book teaching but rather a very accurate 81

“Cuyos montes del leuante venido fizo su penitencia.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 4r.

82

“Porende si a esto endreço el viejo su fatiga y los sudores del desierto para que este camino perdido esta senda angosta de çarças y spinos terrada nos abriesse.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 5r. 83

“Porende concluyendo si procurar la puridat del coraçon enla qual la vista y conoscimiento de dios si promete a qual quier varon xpistiano no solamente es conuenible mas avn tan necessario que sin ello ni hay razon de dessear la vida ni causa para venir, y si aqueste sancto varon para esto nos amonesto y aesto nos encamina por que no alabaremos a dios que dexadas las cueuas del yermo quiso que alo llano descendiesse para con su enxemplo mostar nos esta arte tan prouechosa,” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 10v. 84

“Quel libro no fue antes acabado que diesse fin a su penitencia y ala vida.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 4r.

158

history of his life.”85 Boyl, however, left nothing to chance. To reinforce Abba Isaac’s position as a servant of God, the new hermit reminded his readers that the saint’s relics remain honored by his fellow Christians on the mountain were he completed his penance and wrote his book. 86 The veneration of the relics, as a manifestation of the God’s approval of his person and his way of life, became a powerful reminder of God’s special grace given to Isaac as an ascetic and leader in the church. I have not found examples of relics tied directly to a text’s authority as in the case of Boyl and Isaac, though the Estoire del Saint Graal has the hermit place the book of the Estoire in a casket that holds the corpus domini, thus associating the book with Christ’s body.87 Nevertheless, Boyl here drew on the accepted medieval belief that God manifests his authority in a saint through the power and veneration given to his or her relics. The principal characteristics behind Isaac’s authority here identified by Boyl are those traditionally associated with the great spiritual fathers of the desert. Late antique and medieval religious literature placed significant emphasis on the long-term experience as essential preparation for being an abba. It was not an issue of vows taken, position in the church or education, nor was it simply practicing spiritual exercises, such as fasts, vigils, meditation and poverty do not create the spiritual father.88 Authority did not even rest on the number of grey

85

“Non se deuria este tractado llamar ensenyañça mas antes historia de su vida muy cierta.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 4r. 86

“Y porque aquello que con tanta sabiduria trabajo, y con tal diligecia obro conla flaqueza dela humana condicion no peligrasse con tanta fee y caridat compuso este libro que segun la honrra que avn hoy enla ciudat despoleto en italia a sus huessos y reliquias se faze, en cuyos montes del leuante venido fizo su penitencia.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 4r. 87

Carol Chase, “Christ, the Hermit and the Book: Text and Figuration in the Prologue to the Estoire del Saint Graal,” in De sens rassis: Essays in Honor of Rupert T. Pickens, edited by Keith Busby, Bernard Guidot and Logan E. Whalen (New York: Rodopi, 2005), 126, n. 4 [125-147] 88

Columba Stewart, “The Desert Fathers on Radical Honesty about the Self,” Vox benedictina 8 (1991):

21-22.

159

hairs on one’s head.89 The authority of a spiritual father resided in a combination of daily spiritual exercises cultivated by years of experience living under the direction of another abba. 90 Only “by the sweat of experience”, noted John Cassian, can one attain the ability to be a teacher of the religious life.91 The long-term experience of asceticism and spiritual direction cultivated an awareness of sin that led to the hope of forgiveness and manifested itself through the gift of tears realized through grace in the purity of one’s heart.92 Once attained, the abba was under the obligation to share his new discernment with others, whether orally with their disciples or by writing.

Writing about spiritual praxis brought together the authority acquired through

experience and with the authority vested in their writings. Spiritual writings, whether male or female, therefore took on an autobiographical character due to the perfection of the holy man or woman embodied in the writing. For Boyl, it was a way of life, not an abstract theology, which the abbot recorded in the De religione. The autobiographical quality of the De religione had particular resonance for Boyl. He saw in it a means to turn Isaac into the real, current abba over all the hermits at Montserrat. To foster this association, he carefully used possessive pronouns, the language of empathy, and geography to bring Isaac into their community. Isaac, for instance, was not a distant, past saint; he was “our Abba Isaac (el nuestro abbat ysach) who lived on “our mountain (desta nuestra

89

A quote from Abba Moses in John Cassian’s Conferences cited by George E. Demacopulos, Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), 111 and 113. 90

Douglas Burton-Christie, Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in the Early Christian Monasticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 150-154. 91

Quoted from André Louf, “Spiritual Fatherhood in the Literature of the Desert,” in Abba: Guide to Wholeness and Holiness, East and West. Papers presented at the Symposium on Spiritual Fatherhood/Motherhood at the Abby of New Clairvaux, Vina, California 12-16 June 1978, edited by John R. Sommerfeldt, Cistercian Studies Series 38 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1982), 43. 92

Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 123-125 and 127-128.

160

montanya).”93

Isaac also did not write his “wondrous doctrine and teachings” for private

edification, he did it out of “our necessity (a nuestra necessidat).94 Like other saints, his life served as an example for others.95 His suffering and tears experienced during the long years of solitude became mixed with the hermits’ struggles as solitaries living under the rigors of the new Observantine order. Isaac’s penitential experiences in every way became their experiences as they lived in their cells on the mountain.96 Boyl here described an empathetic sharing of the eremitic life by both Isaac and his brethren, making the solitude of their Montserrat the dwelling place of their new spiritual father Isaac, whose own spiritual formation took place on the mountain above Split.97 The associations were clear and practical for the hermits. Isaac’s ascetical experiences took place on the summit of a mountain, where through asceticism and prayer, he entered the interior mountain of the heart to experience God through contemplation. Isaac now brought this experience to Montserrat to serve as their spiritual father through the life experience embodied in the text. Boyl and the hermits now submitted to Isaac as spiritual father. If the De religione was truly his life as Boyl argued, he and his hermits had the duty to do all that Isaac had done.98 “If we want to know what he did, we should diligently read what he advised,”

93

Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 2v.

94

Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 3v.

95

“Porende si las vidas y historias delos padres antiguos que en virtudes y mauillas por la perfection y sanctidat de la vida en sus tiempos tanto resplan decieron que avn ahora con sus enxemplos nos alumbran y consuelan tanto alabamos y nos plazen, porque desecharemos ellarte y doctrina conla qual se fizieron” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 5v. 96

“Ca no es pequenyo ellamor que enlas proprias affliciones y lloros delos agenos males se duele, y entre los sus gemidos delos nuestros se acuerda y con sus lagrimas a las nuestras consuela.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 3v. 97

Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 3v.

98

“Ca no se cree hauer tanto scrito lo que nosotros deuiamos fazer quanto recontado lo que en su vida hauia fecho.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 3v.

161

since as a true abba he would not write anything that one would not be able to follow.99 Reading the De religione thus became a personal conversation with Isaac as abba over what they should practice, not just read in private study.100 As Paul Gehl noted, “Translation works on several levels, not the least that of self-discovery and personal exploration.”101 The inclusion of small internal glosses as evidence of the glossator’s authorial intentions in adjusting a text had much precedent in the Middle Ages. Emendation was normal, and even expected by medieval writers. When concerned with monastic reform translators used such glosses to assert their authority over the community. Richard Fox, when translating the Rule of Saint Benedict for the nuns of the Diocese of Winchester, cleverly included “sayth seynt Benet” several times in his translation where it did not appear in the Rule.102 According to Nancy Warren, such additions reaffirmed Benedict’s authority over the sisters as part of the bishop’s reform.103 John Crean saw similar changes in the Altenburg Rule of Saint Benedict, where the male translator incorporated feminized additions to the text to foster personal identification with the Rule.104

Jiménez de Cisneros, for his part, inserted similar glosses in sections of

99

“Ca si quisieremos saber lo que fizo, leamos con diligencia lo que amoniesta.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 5v. 100

“Leamos la enseñanças deste sancto viejo en que todo esto se muestra y no solo leamos mas entendamos y platiquemos. Ca esta sciencia y arte sin platicar y obrar lo que se lee no se puede saber antes tanto en mayor deuda queda despues de leyda el negligente y descurado, quanto fue mayor el menosprecio de no querer seguir el camino de salut despues de fallado, ni ha menester de buscar otro testigo del stado de su alma saluo el aborrescer y tener en asco los manjares que le dan vida.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 6r. 101

Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators,” 292.

102

Richard Fox, “Here begynneth the Rule of seynt Benet,” in Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England with and Edition of Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517, edited by Barry Collet (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), 83. 103

Nancy Warren, Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 34-35. 104

John E. Crean, Jr., “The Unique Language of the Altenburg Rule of Saint Benedict,” in Studies in Medieval Culture, edited by John R. Sommerfeldt and Thomas H. Seiler (Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University Press, 1977), 127.

162

Exercitatorio dela vida sspiritual when arguing for the incorporation of the hermits as monks in the coenobitic community rather than allowing them to live under their own customs. Even the eccentric poet Jean de Meun wrote in the Roman de la Rose that he only added a word here and there; and through these glosses the reader would “know all that I have written and all I intend to write.”105 Boyl made these associations more effective by combining these personal relationships with the geographical setting of the mountain where Isaac and the hermits lived out their religious lives. Boyl had many sources for this interpretation of Isaac’s treatise, in particular the literal, typological, allegorical and anagogical interpretations of Mount Sinai, the mountains in the Psalms and the Sermon on the Mount.

These exegetical methods were applied

biographically, as seen in Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses and Athanasius of Alexandria’s Life of Anthony. In the Life of St. Anthony, Athanasius began with the hermit’s historical residence on a mountain that was divided into two parts: the outer mountain, where a small community supporting the abba resided, and the inner mountain that contained Anthony’s cave. The outer and inner mountain in turn became the path of spiritual progress, with Anthony moving from the (physical/literal) mountain of the flesh to the inner (spiritual) mountain of the soul.106

The

dangers of the world and the struggle against demons resided on the outer mountain whence one had to ascend to the true inner mountain on one’s progressive journey towards God.107 As 105

Quoted in Douglas Kelly, Internal Difference and Meanings in the Roman de la Rose (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 14 and 16. 106

Tim Vivian, “Mountain and Desert: The Geographies of Early Coptic Monasticism,” Coptic Church Review 12 (1991): 15 and 18; Antoine Guillaumont, “Conception du désert chez les moines d’Egypte,” Revue de l’histoire des religions 188 (1975): 3 and 20-21. 107

Tim Vivian, “Mountain and Desert,” 16-17; Guillaumont, “Conception du désert,” 16-17; James Goehring, “The Encroaching Desert: Literary Production and Ascetic Space in Early Christian Egypt,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 1/4 (1993): 283-284.

163

Anthony moved from the outer to the inner mountain, he engaged in a continuum of locations defined in terms of distance and space.108 The interior mountain, being found in the soul, resided in all places at all times and not simply a fixed geographical space.109 The mountain therefore became the place were Anthony’s spiritual authority grew by increasingly engaging in difficult trials in pursuit of purity of the heart on the mountains of the Egyptian desert.110 Boyl’s decision to mention the two mountains symbolically and geographically reminded the hermits of the ancient traditions they continued to practice at Montserrat. The desert fathers understood that living in the mountain cell where their abba resided had attached to it the spiritual experience of the abba.111 This was akin to putting on the hairshirt of a deceased abba to take on his virtues and continue his traditions. Isaac’s mountain, in this sense, also became Montserrat’s mountain by virtue of the ascetical-mystical experience shared by the abba and disciples through their residence in similar geographical locations. By “residing” on the Mountain of Montserrat through his presence in the text, Isaac now acted as spiritual father and shared his spiritual battles with his disciples as traditional abba’s had done in the desert. Without such empathy, the novice would fall victim to overpowering despair of sin and fail to see the charity of God’s forgiveness in the acts of their spiritual father, Isaac. Boyl here attempted to convince the hermits through Isaac’s authority and empathy by using basic rhetorical devices that medieval readers would instinctively since they came from 108

Goehring, “The Encroaching Desert,” 288-289.

109

Tim Vivian, “Mountain and Desert,” 18.

110

Goehring, “The Encroaching Desert,” 289-290; Guillaumont, “Conception du désert,” 19-21.

111

“One of the brethren went to see Abba Sisoes on Abba Anthony’s mountain. While they were talking, he said to Abba Sisoes, “Have you already reached Abba Anthony’s stature, Father?” The old man said to him, “If I had one of Abba Anthony’s thoughts, I should become all flame; but I do know a man, who with difficulty is able to bear Anthony’s thoughts.” Saying of Abba Sisoes, #9. Benedicta Ward, tr., Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, Cistercian Studies Series 59 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1975), 214.

164

their basic grammar education.112 In particular, his imaginative/mimetic association - abba and disciple - resulted from the application of interpretive models (exegesis) to a text redefined by Boyl as expositor of the De religione.113 Boyl, through his translation, constructed a relationship between Isaac and the eremitic community, where he and the hermits subjected themselves to the authority of Isaac as spiritual father of the hermitage. The egalitarian vision for Montserrat proposed by Boyl did not fully reflect a return to the res publica of the desert envisioned by Paolo Giustiniani as discussed earlier in the dissertation. In fact, in many ways quite the contrary happened. The translation and the portrayal of Isaac as the abba of Montserrat also reinforced Boyl’s authority and limited the sense of equality in the community he rhetorically created in his translation. As the translator, Boyl displaced Isaac’s authority onto himself; the translator became the auctor of and auctoritas behind the text.114 By translating, Boyl changed the authority behind the text and applied it to a context that questioned his position as superior of Montserrat.115 As Copeland noted, subservient protestations of medieval translators (in the sense that they are conducting exegesis) in the end replaced the authority they were to uphold.116 The fact is that Boyl remained the superior of the community, and even his willingness to place himself under Isaac in a figurative and textual manner did not remove his day-to-day authority over the lives of the hermits. Boyl stood between two language realms where difference in language allowed him to

112

Kelly, Internal Difference, 13.

113

Rita Copeland, Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 179. 114

Copeland, Rhetoric, 123.

115

Kelly, Internal Difference, 8.

116

Copeland, Rhetoric, 150.

165

assert a level of rank based on his role as textual mediator between the primitive, authoritative writings of the desert Father Isaac and the hermits.117 He reinforced his as expositor in order to claim the symbolic and social benefits that accompanied Isaac’s authority as the practitioner of the authentic form of eremitic life.118 This liminal status protected him from charges of inexperience and lack of authority while reinforcing his authority on the community.119 He created a triangular relationship between himself, the hermits and Isaac, which produced a hierarchical structure that supplemented Isaac’s bond as spiritual director of the hermits with Boyl’s authority as the new president of the community.120 The need/desire for the translation in fact created Boyl’s authority, perhaps more so than his actual office as president of the hermits. Collett, on the one hand, noted how petitions for translations of monastic works did not imply the imposition of authority via the text since those that asked for the translation would have recognized how accurately the translator followed the text.121 Yet, as Warren countered, vernacular translations of religious texts enforced and preserved traditional hierarchical relations and morals given the conservative nature of the texts and how they were taught in monastic communities.122 The hermits’ petition allowed for participation, but ultimately Boyl controlled the language, organization, and preparation of the text to the community. In fact, there is far less reader agency within eremitic communities than in other segments of society. The nature of monastic obedience leant itself to accepting authority, particularly in small communities of 117

Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators, 293.

118

Warren, Spiritual Economies, 35; Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators, 291 and 293

119

Schirmer, “Reading lessons at Syon Abbey,” 348.

120

Warren, Spiritual Economies, 201 n. 25.

121

Collett, “Holy Expectations,”147-148.

122

Warren, Spiritual Economies, 33-34.

166

recluses devoted to concentrated periods of lectio divina in solitude and silence.123 Solitary readers are thus more prone to accept the place that the assigned to them by the translator.124 The single nature of the cell therefore reinforced a uniform interpretation of the text. Such stability rested on the accessus ad auctores provided by the translator (in this case Boyl) who used his exposition to guide the reading of the text rather than letting the text stand on its own, confronting the hermit in his solitude as Anthony confronted the demons in the desert. Boyl’s translation ultimately made use of the “the codes and the conventions that regulate the practices of a membership community” to establish his authority when challenged by a group of recluses placed under his pastoral care.125 These codes, or in our cast constitutions, solidified Boyl’s authority and placed it within his responsibility to care for the souls of his brothers. The reformed constitutions of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere’s made this clear when they gave the president the authority to admonish, correct and punish the hermits to ensure the quality of religious life at the house. The hermits solidified this authority be willingly agreeing to follow the president’s decisions with regard to any form of correction or penance he would administer. It was a tremendous responsibility, including as it did his accountability before God if he failed to provide a way of life conducive for their salvation. This is a frequently overlooked aspect of authority in religious communities. The hermits’ choice to submit to the superior involved the awareness that the superior had the

123

Denis Depres argued that vernacular books are akin to lectio divina. This is a bit of a generalization, and perhaps should be restricted to the idea that the increased interest/need for the vernacular prompted increased practice in lectio divina. Cited from Schirmer, “Reading lessons at Syon Abbey,” 347. 124

Gehl, “Preachers, Teachers and Translators, 300.

125

Roger Chartier, The Order of Books, translated by Lydia G. Cochrane (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 4.

167

better chance in determining what action did not endanger their chance for salvation than did the individual hermit. Here, pastoral responsibility merged with interpretive authority to provide access to a text mindful of the goal that each hermit had to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. The selection of proper vocabulary to impart the correct “marvelous teachings and doctrine” of the De religione fell under this very rubric of salvation. Translation was not an act without risk. Contemporary authors understood that translation from one language to another brought about an inevitable literal variation in the text on account of the fallen state of language after the expulsion from Eden.126 Many abbots considered translations into the vernacular as “novelties, vanities; at best useless at worst nefarious.”127 Errors in translation, for this reason, could lead the hermit to sin brought about by changes to the theological sense of the work. Intense care in translating a text therefore proved necessary to ensure orthodoxy and to avoid misleading the reader into erroneous beliefs.128 Awkward vocabulary or confusing theological notions could disrupt the mind of the hermit and open space for the wandering thought occasioned by the wiles of demons to enter his mind lead the monk down the ladder to hell.129 This is particularly true in the intense process of internalizing a text according to the peculiar nature of reading and writing in eremitic

126

John Dagenais, The Ethics of Reading in Manuscript Culture: Glossing the Libro de buen amor (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 5-6. 127

Hasenohr, “Note sur une traduction française,” 28.

128

Columba Stewart, “From λόγος to verbum: John Cassian’s Use of Greek in the Development of a Latin Monastic Vocabulary,” in The Joy of Learning and the Love of God. Studies in Honor of Jean Leclerq, edited by Rozanne Elder, Cistercian Studies Series 160 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995): 6. 129

Columba Stewart, ‘Working the Earth of the Heart:’ the Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to AD 431 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 2; Michael Sargent, “The Problem of Uniformity in Carthusian Book-Production form the Opus Pacis to the Tertia Compilatio Statutorum,” in New Science Out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Honor of A.I. Doyle (London: Aldershot, 1995), 124 and 130.

168

communities practiced during long periods of solitude.130 Boyl, as both a monk and humanist, understood the proper and improper use of language, and the dangers that accompanied a literal slavish imitation.131

The correct spiritual meaning, the principal meaning, needed to be

preserved despite the changes from one language to another, just is it was preserved by changing one abba for another through the spiritual association of Isaac as abba of Montserrat. The preservation of the spiritual meaning depended on Boyl’s ability to keep orthodox theology at the forefront of his mind while translating the text despite the change from one language to another. The preservation of his authority turned on his ability to keep an orthodox venerable abba in forefront of the hermit’s eyes as he contemplated the teachings of Isaac in his cell. Boyl and the hermits held the spirit of the treatise in common, and this spirit gathered the community into a coherent group under his direction. In the end, Boyl’s decision to write the original manuscript for the hermits to read and copy in their cells, may, as much as the translation, solidified his authority as author of the text within the eremitic community. This relationship between individuals in groups using a common text closely adheres to Brian Stock’s theory of textual communities, or “microsocieties organized around a common understanding of a script.”132 According to Stock, much of the literary production from the eleventh century onward focused on “changing the behavior of the individual or group.”133 Only one interpreter (interpres) was needed to communicate the text orally or textually to another individual or group. “By a process of absorption and reflection,” 130

Belinda Egan, ed., Oswaldi de corda opus pacis, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 79.

131

Paul Gehl, “Mystical Language Models in Monastic Education Psychology,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studeis 14 (1984): 220. 132

Brian Stock, “History, Literature, Textuality,” in Listening for the Text: On the Uses of the Past (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 22-23. 133

Stock, “History, Literature, Textuality,” 23.

169

Stock argued, “the behavioral norms of the group’s other members were eventually altered.”134 Social interaction between individuals in the group derived from the perspectives gained during this process of education into new ideas. Those who formed part of this community increasingly identified their rationalized behavioral norms with the text. Stock concluded that the basis of these social interactions was textual, with the interpres guiding the community towards these new behavioral norms, whether orally or through the written page. As a small group reading a common text, Stock’s theory of textual communities fits well with the process of education seen at Montserrat under Boyl. However, the nature of the manuscript, as a nexus that fixes the oral culture of the hermit’s collation with the abba on the page, places Stock’s theory within the object of the book as much as in the script on the page. Belinda Egan remarked that the very nature of the eremitic practice of silence and solitude contributed in itself to the importance of the production of manuscripts as the essential form of spiritual direction within the monastery.135 Boyl’s decision to produce a hand-written text may therefore reflect the practice of spiritual direction that preferred a written text to an oral translation on account of the nature of the eremitic life. “Since we are not able to speak,” Guigo of the Grande Chartreuse wrote, “we preach with our hands.”136 By preparing the exemplar from his own manuscript Boyl could ensure a standard of uniformity in both text and religious life within the hermitage based upon his authority as both the interpreter of the text as much as the interpreter of the script written on the page and organized into a book. The specific nature of

134

Stock, “History, Literature, Textuality,” 23.

135

Egan, Oswaldi de corda opus pacis, 79.

136

Quoted from Richard Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print: Aspects of the Manuscript Book in Northern Europe of the Fifteenth Century,” in Proceedings of the PMR Conference (Villanova, PA: Villanova University, 1985): 44.

170

text-centered piety in eremitic communities emphasized this authority through the uniformity of the text, as the hand-written text remained the principal means of spiritual direction given their lives in solitude. In this sense, Boyl’s decision to be the sole translator of the text and to fix the translation on the page with his hand created a direct association between the physical manuscript and his personal authority as superior. In this, perhaps we can forgive the late sixteenth-century cataloguer who identified the manuscript copy of Isaac’s De religione as “the book of reverend fray Boyl: De vita contemplatiua.”137

Conclusion When Boyl agreed to translate the De religione in his early years at Montserrat, he did so to help his brothers understand the teachings that Abba Isaac had written for their spiritual formation. He saw it as an opportunity to share with his brothers a text that formed part of his own conversion. Shared orally in the interest in reform, it became a constant means to provide each hermit with a measure of spiritual direction in his absence. He did so with the knowledge that the venerable Abba Isaac provided experience and authority to the hermits at a time when the novice superior struggled to maintain peace in the community and carry out the reforms his king had entrusted to him. Validating their needs, creating equality through language and text and providing instruction ensured, or at least promised, a stable community under the guidance of an ancient abba who struggled himself against the demons on his mountain. Boyl could look back to Queen María’s library, even back to the Llullist hermits, and see this same process of renewal by returning to the observance of the original desert hermits being recreated at

137

“Comienca el libro del reverendo frai buil: de vita contemplatiua.” Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795, fol. 2r.

171

Montserrat for the service of the church. Five years later, at the insistence of his friend Pedro Zapata, the relation created between Isaac and the hermits, between language and text, became a bond uniting the reform at Montserrat with the general reform of the church through the “wondrous machine of the printing press.”138 Standing with Clareno, Boyl’s translation of the De religione became the source for reform of the hermits and the restoration of the purity of the church.

138

“Con el marauilloso artificio dela enprenta.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 2v.

172

CHAPTER FIVE FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO THE CHURCH: BERNAT BOYL’S FRIENDS AND THE 1489 EDITION OF ISAAC OF NINEVEH’S DE RELIGIONE

Introduction The 1489 edition of Bernat Boyl’s translation of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione has long intrigued scholars of early printing history in the Spanish Kingdoms. To date, these studies have focused on the location and name of the printer, as the colophon contains the type of misleading and missing information regarding provenance that so tantalizes historians of the book. Interest in the book, however, has waned since Conrad Haebler identified Iohann Hurus (fl. 1485-1500) as the printer and Zaragoza as the place of publication.1 Since Haebler’s discovery, only Cebrìa Baraut, César Nardelli Cambrai, and Sebastià Janeras have devoted attention to the edition.2 Their studies, like those before them, focused on the provenance and dissemination of the De religione in the Spanish Kingdoms. Despite the interest in the book, however, little attention has been paid to the history behind the publication of the translation, including the relationship 1

Conrad Haebler, Bibliografía ibérica del siglo XV. Enumeración de todos los libros impresos en España y Portugal hasta el año 1500, 2 vols. (The Hague, Martin Nijhoff, 1903-1917; reprint, Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2000), 1: 152 and 2: 91; Idem, Geschichte des spanischen Frühdruckes in Stammbäumen (Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1923), 302-303. 2

Cebrìa Baraut, “En torno al lugar donde fue impresa la traducción Castellana del Isaac ‘De religione’ de Bernardo Boil,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 37 (1962): 171-178; César Nardelli Cambraia, “A difusão da obra de Isaac de Nínive em línguas ibero-românicas: breve notícia des tradiçiões portuguesa, espanhola e catalã,” in Performance, exílio, fronteiras: errâncias territoriais e textuats, edited by Graciela Ravetti and Márcia Arbex (Belo Horizonte: Departamento de Letras Românicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, Estudos Literários, Faculdade de Letras, UFMG, 2002), 293-315; Sebastià Janeras, “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive dans la Péninsula Ibérique,” in Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy, edited by Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 1 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007), 247-274.

173

between the patron and translator and its connections with the reform of the hermits of Montserrat. Hurus’ edition of the De religione, far from being only a bibliographic curiosity, contains within its history a series of complex social relationships particular to the reform environment promoted by the Catholic Monarchs at the end of the fifteenth century. At the center of these relationships stood the friendship between the patron and the translator, Bernat Boyl and Pedro Zapata. The De religione originated in part from Boyl’s desire to help his colleague and patron Archpriest Pedro Zapata of Daroca (d. c. 1505) reform the church as part of their duties to the Catholic Monarchs.

His decision, however, went beyond church reform. Printing the De

religione included a broader community of friends who shared books and intellectual pursuits as part of small friendship network. Printing the De religione, in this sense, originated from the desire of colleagues and friends to publish a book of religious instruction that extended Bernat Boyl’s reforms at the hermitage of Montserrat to the Aragonese Church as a whole.

Bernat Boyl, Pedro Zapata, and the Trastámara Court Pedro Zapata and Bernat Boyl had a long history of mutual service to the Trastámara dynasty. We do not know how and when Zapata and Boyl originally met, but diocesan records from Zaragoza show that both served at the court of Archbishop Juan de Aragón of Zaragoza (d. 1475) in the 1470s. Boyl, as discussed earlier in the dissertation, arrived at the archbishop’s court after working as a public notary in the chancery of Juan II de Aragón (1397-1479).3 3

AHP, Barcelona, Notari Pere Pasqual 1469-1474, refa 191/41, without foliation. Partially edited in Ricardo Carreras Valls, El llibre a Catalunya, 1338-1590 (Barcelona: Imprenta Altés, 1936), 73-74. Prunés corrected previous scholarship, which argued that Boyl worked as a secretary for Pedro Zapata and not the archbishop. Josep M. Prunés, “Nuevos datos y observaciones para la biografía de Fray Bernardo Boyl,” Bollettino ufficiale dell’ordine dei minimi 49/4 (2004): 560.

174

Zapata, for his part, held the powerful office of Archpriest of Daroca (Zaragoza) and served as the head chamberlain of the archbishop.4

In these offices, both men collaborated in the

administration of the archdiocese when, for example, Pedro Zapata confirmed a censal for Miquel Sala on 3 February 1474, which had originally been witnessed by Boyl as secretary to the archbishop in December 1473.5 Boyl and Zapata left the archiepiscopal court in 1475 after King Juan II failed to secure the metropolitan see for the royal family upon the death of Archbishop Juan de Aragón.6 Like Boyl, Zapata’s departure coincided with a new official position in the king’s court.7 From 1478 onward, the archpriest served as a royal chaplain and an emissary between the various heads of the Trastámara house. We know little about his activities between 1475 and 1478, though historians believed that he began funding the elaborate alabaster tomb of Archbishop Juan de 4

We do not know when Zapata became the Archpriest of Daroca. He held the office at least until 1496, when he became prior to the cathedral chapter of Zaragoza. He seems to have lost the benefice of Daroca between July and November 1496. He witnessed the ordination of Archbishop Alfonso de Aragón (1470-1520) in 1501, holding the office of general-vicar of the cathedral and prior in the cathedral chapter. Fidel Fita, “Escritos de Bernal Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 283; Francisco Fernández Serrano, Obispos auxiliaries de Zaragoza en tiempos de los arzobispos de la casa real de Aragón (14601575) (Zaragoza: Institución "Fernando el Católico", 1969), 51; Antonio de la Torre, ed., Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales de los Reyes Católicos, 6 vols. (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Patronato Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, 1949-1966), 5: 297-298 and 353-354. 5

AHP, Barcelona, Notari Pere Pasqual 1469-1474, refa 191/41, without foliation. Partially edited in Carreras Valls, El llibre a Catalunya, 74-75; Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 561. 6

Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) placed Auxias Despuig, Archbishop of Monreale and Cardinal of Santa Sabina (d. 1483) in the vacant cathedral chair instead of Alfonso de Aragón, the bastard son of Fernando II. Azcona, Tarsicio de Azcona, La elección y reforma del episcopado español en tiempo de los reyes católicos (Madrid: C.S.I.C. Instituto “P. Enrique Flórez,” 1960), 97-103; Idem, “Primeros pasos de la política religiosa de Fernando el Católico en la elección de obispos,” in Fernando el Católico. Pensamiento político, política internacional y religiosa. V congreso de historia de la corona de Aragón (Zaragoza: C.S.I.C. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1956), 284-289; Idem, “Reforma del episcopado y del clero de España en tiempo de los reyes católicos y de Carlos V (1475-1558),” in Historia de la iglesia de España (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1980), 3: 123-125. 7

Scholars suggested that Zapata financed the tomb of Archbishop Juan de Aragón at this time. Jesús María Camaño Martínez, “Arquitectura y artes plásticos,” vol. 16, Historia de España (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1994), 716717; Augusto L. Mayer, El arte gótico en España, 3rd ed., translated by Felipe Villaverde (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1960), 117-118. Francisco Abbad Rios, Catálogo monumental de España: Zaragoza, 2 vols. (Madrid: C.S.I.C. Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1957), 1: 62.

175

Aragón during this time.8 When he does appear in the records, Zapata’s duties often overlapped with Boyl’s role as secretary and ambassador to France. In October 1478, for example, Fernando commanded Zapata to deliver a letter to Juan II regarding the terms of the Treaty of San Juan de la Luz over the disputed Counties of Roselló and Cerdagne, which included an order to arrange a meeting with between the two kings at Daroca in January 1479.9 Zapata’s mission coincided with Boyl’s return to the court, where Fernando II likely took advantage of his secretary’s experience in France to help prepare Zapata for his mission to Juan II. Both men’s service to the king did not go unrewarded.

Fernando II reconfirmed their official positions when he

reorganized the royal court after the death of his father in January 1479.10 After Boyl entered the hermitage of Montserrat, he met Zapata at the royal court on several occasions between 1484 and 1489. The first instance took place at the Cortes of Aragón convened at Tarazona in February 1484.11 Fernando II summoned Boyl, now the president of

8

The king reconfirmed Zapata in the office of royal chaplain at Sigüenza on 20 June 1479. Zapata did not serve in causa honoris, but as a resident chaplain at the court. Jaime Vicens Vives, Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de Fernando II de Aragón (Barcelona: C.S.I.C. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1962), 642. 9

Fita, “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl,” 282-283; Antonia Paz y Meliá, El cronista Alonso de Palencia ; su vida-y sus obras; sus décadas y las crónicas contemporáneas; illustraciones de las Décadas y notas varias, The Hispanic Society of America 98 (Madrid: The Hispanic Society of America, 1914), 265-267. Background on the events can be found in Vicens Vives, Historia crítica, 492-496; De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 1: 402-403; Suárez Fernández and de Mata Carriazo Arroquia, La España de los Reyes Católicos, 1: 212-215; Luis Suaréz Fernández, Política internacional de Isabel la Católica, 5 vols. (Valladolid: Instituto “Isabel la Católica” de Historia Eclesiástica, 1965-1972), 1: 154-157 and 383-415; Joseph Calmette, “La fin de la domination française en Roussillon au XVe siècle,” Bulletin de la société agricole, scientifique et littéraire des Pyrénées-orientales 43 (1902): 164-167; Idem, La question des pyrénées et la Marche d’Espagne au moyen âge (Paris: J.B. Janin, 1947), 228; Georges Daumet, Etude sur l’alliance de la France et de la Castille au XIVe et au XVe siécles (Paris, 1898), 123; Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 2: 361-362. 10

Vicens Vives recorded the wrong date for Boyl’s appointment, which should be 26 February 1479 at Trujillo. Zapata was reconfirmed at Sigüenza on 20 June 1479. Vicens Vives, Historia crítica, 522, 582, and 642. 11

Fernando originally summoned the Cortes on 24 December 1483 to be convened on 14 January 1484. Developments in France delayed the Cortes until 12 February 1484. Ricardo del Arco, “Cortes aragoneses de los Reyes Católicos,” Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 60/1 (1954): 78-82; María Rosa Muñoz Poner, “Las Cortes de Tarazona-Valencia-Orihuela (1484-88) y la guerra de Granada,” in La Península Ibérica en la era de los

176

the hermits of Montserrat, to advise the king on the coming embassy to France led by Don Juan de Ribera of Montemayor and Dean Juan Arías of Sevilla.12 Zapata, on the other hand, traveled to Tarazona with the Catholic Monarchs, whom he continued to serve as royal chaplain and court emissary.13

Both remained at Tarazona through May.

Fernando attempted to secure the

important Sicilian benefice of San Giovanni degli Eremiti (Palermo) for Zapata, while Boyl continued giving counsel to the king over the French question.14 This extended stay at the Cortes coincided with Boyl’s recently completed translation of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione at Sant Cugat del Vallès on 13 February 1484, the first opportunity he had to discuss the importance of the translation and his religious reforms with his colleague. Boyl and Zapata met again at the Cortes of Salamanca held from 2 November 1486 through 30 January 1487. Boyl attended the court for two reasons. First, he informed the Catholic Monarchs in November about the continuing problems at Montserrat and the necessity of gaining support from Observantine communities to carry out the reform. This scrutiny of monastic life is visible within the monarchs’ important proclamation of a new, universal program descubrimientos (1391-1492), edited by Manuel González Jiménez, Isabel Montes Romero-Camacho, and Antonio Claret García Martínez, 2 vols. (Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Cultura, 1997), 2: 1481-1509. 12

Bernat Boyl to Arnau Descós. Barcelona, 23 February 1484. Fita, “Escritos de fray Bernal Boyl,” #4, 297-298. The conflict resulted from Charles VIII and Anne of Beaujeu’s refusal to return the counties to Fernando II as stated in the will of King Louis XI. Suarez Fernández, La política internacional, 2: 98-99; Calmette, “La fin de la domination,” 168-169; Idem, La question des Pyrénées, 232-237; Yvonne Labande-Mailfert, Charles VIII. Le vouloir et la destinée (Paris: Arthéme Fayard, 1986), 35-38; Edwards, Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 91-92 and 249. 13

Fernando charged the archpriest to deliver a suspended annuity to the king’s nephew, the Infante Juan de Aragón y Navarra on 30 October 1483. De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 1: 347-349 and 399. 14

Fernando’s attempt to gain the benefice for Zapata began in 1483. Pope Sixtus IV refused Fernando’s request as a result of the intrigues of Bishop Alfonso Carillo of Pamplona (d. 1491) and Juan Bautista Zeno (d. 1501), Cardinal of Santa María del Portico, who seems to have desired the benefice. De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales 1: 384-386 and 433 and 2: 21-22, 529, 534, and 544-547. Boyl returned to Montserrat in May, where he confirmed the charter of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat. Benet Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, (1258-1485), edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 298.

177

of monastic reform in the Spanish Kingdoms  the monarchy would be granted a sweeping set of powers by the papacy.15 Secondly, the Catholic Monarchs sent Boyl and Don Juan de Marimón on a secret embassy to negotiate a marriage between Charles VIII and their daughter the Infanta Isabel (1470-1498). As part of the marriage contract, Charles VIII would agree to restore the disputed Catalan counties to the Kingdom of Aragón. 16 Zapata continued to serve the monarchy as chaplain and emissary during the 1480s. We know that the king continued trying to acquire the benefice of San Giovanni degli Eremiti for the archpriest, requesting Iñigo López de Mendoza, conde de Tendilla (1440-1515), to obtain its transfer to his loyal chaplain.17 Fernando and Isabel also commissioned the archpriest to deliver several letters to Rome in December or early January 1487, perhaps including those written to Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) and Iñigo López de Mendoza regarding Montserrat and general reform within the church. We know that Zapata remained at Rome at least through March 1487, 15

De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 2: 331-341; Idem, “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): 456-460; Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493),” Analecta Montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): 20-21; José García Oro, “Conventualismo y observancia: La reforma de las órdenes religiosas en los siglos XV y XVI,” in Historia de la iglesia de España (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1980), III/1: 269-275; Idem, La reforma de los religiosos españoles en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos (Valladolid: 1969), 33-35 and 82-84; García M. Colombás, Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, Abad de Montserrat, Studia et documenta 5 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955), 73. 16

The conflict over the independence of the Duchy of Brittany from the French crown eventually merged this dispute to that of the counties of Roselló and Cerdagne. The embassy, which occupied Boyl until August 1487, failed. De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 2: 343-346, 459 and 489-490; Suarez Fernández, La política internacional, 2: 154-163; Suárez Fernández and Manuel Fernández Álvarez, La España de los Reyes Católicos, II: 61-62; Labande-Mailfert, Charles VIII, 65-69; Joseph Calmette, “La politique espagnole dans la crise de l’indépendance bretonne (1488-1492),” Revue historique 117 (1914): 168-182; G.A. Bergenroth, ed., Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain Preserved in the Archives at Simancas and Elsewhere, 2 vols. (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862), 1: LXLXIV; Georges Minois, Anne de Bretagne (Paris: Libraire Arthéme Fayard, 1999), 111. 17

No less than fifteen documents record this dispute between 5 March 1484 and the Cortes of Salamanca. Such evidence not only attests to Zapata’s importance to the monarchs, but their own desire to fulfill their policy of asserting royal privilege over clerical appointments within their realms. De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 2: 87-89, 99-100, 174-175, 186-188, 191-193, 201, 226-227, 236-238, 257-264, 341-343, and 375376.

178

when a letter sent by the Catholic Monarchs to the Conde de Tendilla referred to the archpriest and the reforms of Montserrat.18 The reform program initiated at the Cortes of Salamanca and Zapata’s relationship with Boyl made him an apt representative to deliver messages to the papacy and their procurator. If the Cortes of Tarazona in 1484 offered a chance to discuss the reforms of Montserrat, Boyl and Zapata’s meeting at Salamanca directly dealt with problems and successes of those reforms. The hermit and the archpriest met again one year later at the Cortes of Zaragoza convened between the winter of 1487 and 1488. Boyl arrived at the Cortes in late December 1487 when he informed the monarchs about his failed mission to secure the marriage alliance between the French and Spanish crowns.19 Boyl also discussed the continuing resistance to the reforms at Montserrat, carrying letters from the monks and hermits to the king describing their opposition to the introduction of new constitutions and the plans to introduce Observantine monks into the community as outlined at the Cortes of Salamanca in November 1486. No documents record Zapata’s presence at the Cortes of Zaragoza largely due to the destruction of the sources during the early nineteenth century. However, we can point to a few important circumstances that placed the archpriest at royal court. First, Zapata, as mentioned above, worked in the administration of the archbishop and his benefice of Daroca was located in the archdiocese. More significantly, Zapata would also have the responsibility for hosting the

18

De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 2: 391-395.

19

Letters to Boyl from July and September 1487 show that the monarchs did not expect to see the hermit immediately upon his return from France. De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 2: 449 and 459; Fernando de Pulgar, Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, edited by Juan de Mata Carriazo, 2 vols. (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1943), 2: 342.

179

royal court when the Cortes reconvened at Daroca on February 16.20 His responsibilities as royal chaplain also kept him at the court of the Catholic Monarchs, since Fernando and Isabel decided to visit the relics of los santos corporales in Daroca.21 The last meeting between Boyl and Zapata prior to the publication of the De religione took place at Medina del Campo between 7 February and 27 March 1489. Boyl, as before, approached the king and queen to settle continuing problems at Montserrat that continued to vex the reformers. The monastery still suffered financial problems, which hindered their efforts to reconstruct buildings and create a stable environment for prayer.22 Boyl also addressed the ongoing inability to convince a Benedictine Observantine congregation to send monks to train Montserrat’s community.23 Politically, France and the Spanish Kingdoms had begun the “mad war” (La guerre folle) after Boyl and Marimón failed to secure the marital alliance between the two crowns.24 As on previous occasions, Fernando II called on Boyl’s diplomatic experience to

20

For the study of two other visits to Daroca by Fernando and Isabel see, María Luz Rodrigo Estevan, “El poder real y los rituales públicos de exaltación de la monarquía en una ciudad aragonesa: Daroca (1449-1525),” in El poder en la Corona de Aragón (siglos XII-XVI): XV Congreso de Historia de la Corona de Aragón, 5 vols. ([Zaragoza?]; Gobierno de Aragón, Departamento de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 1996), 3: 463 and 466-468 and Luis Fernando García Marco and Francisco Javier García Marco, “El impacto dela muerte del Príncipe Juan en Daroca (1497-1498): Poesía elegiáca y ritual urbano,” Aragón en la Edad Media 10-11 (1993): 307-333. 21

José Ángel Sesma Muñoz, Fernando de Aragón. Hispaniarum rex (Zaragoza: Octavio y Félez, S.A.,

1992),194. 22

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’abat Joan de Peralta,” 23-26.

23

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’abat Joan de Peralta,” 27-29; Idem, Història de Montserrat (Barcelona: Publicaciones de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1998), 65-68; Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 67-70; Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación de San Benito de Valladolid: Los Priores (1390-1499) (Burgos: Imprenta de Aldecoa, 1973), 200-202. 24

The relationship with France dramatically changed since Boyl’s failed embassy in 1487. This change resulted from the increased political tension between two Catalan counties and the war over the independence of the Duchy of Brittany (la guerre folle) from the French crown. We have no direct evidence of Boyl’s involvement in the diplomatic negotiations in France at this time. Our knowledge is limited to the hermit’s own brief statements to Descós about his lack of time to write to his friend as a result of these obligations at the court. De la Torre, Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales, 2: 489-490; Suarez Fernández, La política internacional, 2: 154-163; Suárez Fernández and Manuel Fernández Álvarez, La España de los Reyes Católicos, 2: 61-62; Labande-Mailfert,

180

provide counsel at court. Unfortunately, as with the Cortes at Zaragoza, we have no written evidence attesting to Zapata’s presence at Medina del Campo, but we can point to his position as chaplain and his ongoing role as emissary for the Catholic Monarchs. Boyl and Zapata’s relationship developed along two basic paths from the 1470s through 1489: service to the royal family and religious reform. These colleagues had ample opportunity to discuss their current interests and duties, whether personal or official. Boyl’s work as a reformer, including his translation of the De religione, surely occurred during these conversations. It is this social relationship and interest in reform forged over a decade of service to the crown that ultimately convinced Boyl to share his translation with Zapata for publication at Zaragoza in 1489.

Friendship, Llullism, and Printing the De religione Josep Prunés suggested that the meeting between Boyl and Zapata at the Cortes of Zaragoza in 1487/1488 prompted the archpriest to publish the translation of the De religione.25 Prunés pointed to three basic facts: Boyl was present at the Cortes, Zapata’s benefice of Daroca resided within the archdiocese, and the treatise was eventually printed at Zaragoza. One might dismiss this theory based simply on the publication of the book in November 1489. However, letters exchanged between Boyl and his friends at the Cortes and his diplomatic activity on behalf of the crown support Prunés’s view. These letters survive in a manuscript prepared by

Charles VIII, 65-69; Calmette, “La politique espagnole,” 168-182; Bergenroth, Calendar of Letters, 2: lxi-lxiv. Minois, Anne de Bretagne, 111. 25

Prunés, “Nuevos datos,” 564-565, n. 28.

181

Arnau Descós, who was unable to attend the Cortes because of his wife’s poor health.26 Descós’ letters show how the Cortes at Zaragoza, like royal courts in general, provided and opportunity for Boyl and his friends to cultivate their alliances, exchange favors, and engage in the theological study of Ramon Llull (1332-1315).27 This social context of friendship, as much as the desire for reform, underlies the hermit and the archpriest’s decision to publish the De religione (Appendix 4) in the fall of 1489.28 The Cortes of Zaragoza afforded Boyl and his friends a unique opportunity to share each other’s company beyond official obligations to the court. News spread among them that their colleague and teacher Pere Daguí (d. 1500) planned to give public lectures on the art of Ramón Llull at the request of Fernando and Isabel. Descós, for example, wrote to Jaime Alcalá and expressed his happiness that his friend had arrived at “renowned Zaragoza,” where he and his fellow Franciscan Pere Vadell could enjoy and benefit from Daguí’s lectures.29 Descós for his part informed Boyl in early January that he intended to travel to Zaragoza to participate in these lectures with his friends. He only feared that Boyl and the others would be too busy with their

26

Descós was a patrician, grammar teacher, and honored citizen of Palma de Mallorca, where he served as a jurat in 1478. José María Quadrado, “Arnaldo Descors y fray Bernal Boyl. Ilustraciones biográficas, políticas y literarias,” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia (1892): 114; Maria Barceló i Crespí and Gabriel Ensenyat i Pujol, El nous horitzons culturals a Mallorca al final de l’edat mitjana, Menjauents 36 (Palma de Mallorca: Edicions Documenta Balear, 2000), 113-114. 27

Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, Readers and Books in Majorca, 1229-1550, 2 vols. (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1991), 1: 225. For the cultural aspects of the courts in general, see Alan Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous: King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, 1396-1458 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 318; Peter Burke, The European Renaissance: Centers and Peripheries (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1998), 57-60. 28

I am here working off Haseldine’s discussion of friendship networks. Julian Haseldine, “Friends, Friendship and Networks in the Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux,” in Friendship in Medieval Europe, edited by Julian Haseldine (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999), 246-247. 29

Arnau Descós to Jaume Alcalá. Palma de Mallorca, (January, 1488?). Fidel Fita, “Cartas inéditas de D. Arnaldo Descós en la colección Pascual,” Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): #36, 422.

182

diplomatic obligations to share the time together.30 His preoccupation proved true, as Descós responded with sadness at how so much royal business (tanta regia negotia) hindered Vadell and Alcalá from attending Daguí’s lectures.31 Despite their obligations, the friends found time to enjoy each other’s company and share the intellectual environment of the court. Descós, writing from his little room (cubiculo meo), encouraged Alcalá and Vadell to reap the benefits of friendship and community such as was lauded by Cicero and lived by the young Augustine of Hippo with his friends. If it seemed so pleasing to Cicero to live both in the common life and in the leisure of the mind with his most dear male friends (bonis viris amicissimis) among whom he wished to have the most sweet discussions, whether about philosophy, eloquence, or the state of the republic; than how much more sweet and joyful it seems to us to speak about our most holy religion, by studying sacred theology, just as the most sweet morsel of our soul or manna from heaven delights, satisfies, and nourishes. Aurelius Augustinus invited his friends (amicos), his beloved (sui amantes), from youth to this same 32 kind of meal.

Descós did not restrict this encouragement to Alcalá and Vadell with similar sentiments expressed in letters to Joan de Mauleón and Boyl.33 The court, in this way, catered to the humanists’ ideal to emulate the Greek and Roman philosophers and the theologians of the church in a new community of friends. 30

Arnau Descós to Bernat Boyl. Palma de Mallorca, (December or January, 1488?). Fita, “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl,” #13, 316-317. 31

Fita, “Cartas inéditas,” #36, 422.

32

“At si suavissimum Ciceroni videbatur et ad communitatem vitae et ad remissionem animorum vivere cum bonis viris amicissimis, inter quos ille dulcissimum sermonem haberi volebat vel de philosophia, aut de eloquentia, sive de statu rei publicae; quam suavissimum ac jucundissimum nobis videtur nos de nostra sanctissima religione loqui, sacram scrutando theologiam, veluti pabulum nostrae animae suavissiumum, vel coeleste manna quod sapit, nutrit atque delectat! Ad hujusmodi prandium invitavit Aurelius Augustinus suos jocundos amicos, amantes sui. ” Fita, “Cartas inéditas,” #40, 428 33

Arnau Descós to Joan de Mauleón. Palma de Mallorca, (January, 1488?). Fita, “Cartas inéditas,” #38, 426-427; Arnau Descós to Bernat Boyl, Palma de Mallorca, (January, 1488?). Fita, “Escritos de Bernal Boyl,” #13, 316-317.

183

Boyl and his friends’ shared experiences went beyond the public lectures and debates. They included personal intellectual exchanges amongst each other.

Vadell, for instance,

informed Déscos how his discussions with Daguí increased his understanding of scholastic theology and Llullism.34 Descós, upon hearing the news, congratulated his friend’s new ability to compare the works of Ramón Llull and Duns Scotus (1266-1308) after meeting with Daguí. 35 Descós later asked Boyl about his personal studies with the Llullist master, “under whose doctrine you were to be taught exactly as [you] desired.”36 Such exchanges demonstrate how Boyl and his friends emphasized personal conversations as much as the public lectures at the court to share each other’s knowledge. Even the letters, in this sense, became a proxy for Descós, to participate in their conversations despite his absence from Zaragoza. Book recommendations, their acquisition, and the requests for texts provided another channel to further cultivate friendship. We know, for example, that Jaime Alcalá learned of Descós’ personal letter collection at the Cortes. Viewing the letters as means to share their love and as a source for study, he asked Descós to send him a copy to Zaragoza. Descós agreed out of love and friendship, but with reservations. But when you request the little books of my letters, which I wrote directly in a passion to well-known friends (amicos) as it required, I should deny [you], if I was able, for many reasons without hesitation; not only because I have not polished them with attention, study, or diligence, which is proper (indeed I have scarcely touched them because I lack the time); but also because many things are expressed from the innermost parts between friends (amicos) with secret words, 34

Arnau Descós to Pere Vadell. Palma de Mallorca, (January, 1488?). Fita, “Cartas inéditas,” #41, 429-

431. 35

On Duns Scotus and Daguí see, Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 224; A. Mark Smith, Ptolemy's Theory of Visual Perception: An English Translation of the Optics with Introduction and Commentary (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1992), 51-53. 36

“Sub cujus doctrina erudire te peroptabas.” Arnau Descós to Bernat Boyl. Palma de Mallorca, 10 March 1488. Fita, “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl,” #14, 318-320.

184

which should not be laid bare before all. However, so much is your love and faith that you have for me that I am not able to deny you that which you asked. Therefore, I will take care to send to you those little books as soon as I shall have time to myself. Although I know that you will neither be able to enjoy reading my little inventive phrases (boyish fooleries) nor will they reveal themselves to you. Nevertheless, in order to indulge you I will send them to you as they are, which you should by no means refuse to emend. Farewell.37

Descós in the end copied the letters for Alcalá regardless of the emotional cost of sharing some parts of his personal life with the public. He simply could not refuse to share his writing without violating his duty as a friend. Such sentiments followed the views of Roman and Greek writers who argued that true friends cultivated each other’s happiness without concern for one’s own pleasure. 38 Descós accordingly must as a true friend send the letters to Alcalá for his pleasure and, if things worked as they should, Descós’ would feel his own pleasure upon hearing of Alcalá’s happiness. It was not truly a matter of choice. “I would deny you if I could,” Descós said. It was a matter of responsibility, and it was a responsibility that produced a copy of his “little book of letters (libelli mearum epistolarum)” intended for Alcalá’s enjoyment and circulation among his friends. This view of literary exchange as a responsibility of friendship was common among late medieval writers. Humanists like Descós followed the principal that between friends all things are held in common based on the relationship between friendship and property found in classical writers and 37

“Quum vero me efflagitas libellos mearum epistolarum, quas subito calore veluti res postulabat scripsi ad familiares amicos, libenter si possem tibi denegarem pluribus decausis; tom quia non ea cura studio ac diligentia [qua decet] eas elimavi, imo vix prae nimia, festinatione dolavi; tum etiam quia multa exprimuntur ab intimis visceribus inter amicos tectis verbis, quae apud omnes non debeni detegi. Sed quoniam tantos est amor fidesque tua erga me, quia non possum hoc tibi efflagitanti denegare; curabo igitur quamprimum mihi supererit tempus illos libellos ad te mittero. Quamquam scio meas ipsas inventiunculas, pueriles ineptiolas, nec tibi prodesse nec te legentem posse delectare; tamen ut tibi obsequar, eas qualescumque sint, mitto ad te, quas emenda[re] haud dedigneris. Vale.” Arnau Descós to Jaume Alcalá. Palma de Mallorca, (January, 1488?). Fita, “Cartas inéditas,” #36, 423. 38

Adriane A. Rini, “Do We Have Duties to Friends? Nichomachean Ethics Books 8 and 9,” in Power and Pleasure, Virtues and Vices, edited by Dick Baltzy, Dougal Blyth and Harold Tarrant (Auckland: Australasian Society for Ancient Philosophy, 2001), 273.

185

the Bible.39 We have already seen how Descós encouraged Alcalá and Vadell to enjoy the common life at Zaragoza. The production of literature, its exchange, and dissemination fostered this sense of community, not only in the artifact that created a bond between benefactor and receiver, but also in the love that engendered the creative process.40 There were other practical matters that encouraged this exchange.

Descós was an

accomplished humanist, whose classical references outweighed his citations of Christian authors and scripture. His letters, despite their personal nature, were written with a concern for language and rhetoric understanding that they would be shared with others. His letter to Alcalá even suggested that the Franciscan emend his letters at his discretion. Descós and Alcalá understood that sharing letters, like books, helped bond one another together in friendship. The value of this exchange rested not simply on the object being given, but on a combination of the value of love and the care between friends.41 It required physical effort (by the act of writing) and emotional effort (by the act of love) to produce the work. Literary exchange, in this sense, not only led to the knowledge of a work, but also to its creation and dissemination through the responsibilities of friendship.42 As Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) advised Giovanni Cavalcanti (1444-1509), friends

39

Kathy Eden, Friends Hold All Things in Common: Tradition, Intellectual Property, and the Adages of Erasmus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 5-6; Idem, “Between Friends All Is Common:” The Erasmian Adage and Tradition,” Journal of the History of Ideas 59/3 (1998): 408-409; David Konstan, Friendship in the Classical World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 128. 40

Eden, Friends Hold All Things in Common, 28-29 and 161-162; Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance (New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1996), 418-420; James McEvoy, “The Theory of Friendship in the Latin Middle Ages: Hermeneutics, Contextualization and the Transmission and Reception of Ancient Texts and Ideas, from c. AD 350 to c. 1500,” in Friendship in Medieval Europe, edited by Julian Haseldine (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999), 20-22. 41

John Najemy, Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 21-23. 42

Peter Burke, “Humanism and Friendship in Sixteenth-Century Europe,” in Friendship in Medieval Europe, edited by Julian Haseldine (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999), 268 and 270; Brian Richardson, Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 50-51.

186

write “that others may understand through our letters those matters which our minds, or rather our mind, considers, and in considering speaks to itself.”43 The Cortes did not simply encourage the personal exchange of books. It also provided the friends with a marketplace where one could suggest books to be purchased or to be acquired out of one’s own desire. Descós, sensing the current enthusiasm for Llull at Zaragoza, urged Boyl to acquire Llull’s writings. In particular, he suggested the De consolatione eremitae in order to avoid temptations against the articles of faith caused by theological study in solitude.44 For his part, Boyl enthusiastically informed Descós how the Cortes of Zaragoza allowed him to obtain a copy of Daguí’s Ianua artis, recently published at Barcelona by Pedro Posa.45 The royal council became a vehicle to circulate writings through manuscripts or the printing press, which by mutual interest in books, produced a sense of community among a like-minded social group.46 These relationships, as much as their official responsibilities, remained central to the exchange of texts in the later Middle Ages, whether for personal use or in the name of reform. Boyl’s group of friends took advantage of the Cortes to share knowledge, engage in study, and exchange books as part of their friendship. Admittedly, none of the letters between Descós and the others mentioned Pedro Zapata as part of their group. His relationship with Boyl and the events at the court, however, at least place Zapata within the social milieu cultivated by 43

Marsilio Ficino, Letters of Marsilio Ficino, 7 vols. (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1975), 4: 21-22.

44

Descós to Boyl. Palma de Mallorca, 10 March 1488. Fita, “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl,” #14, 319-

320. 45

Bernat Boyl to Arnau Descós. Montserrat, 26 June 1488. Fita, “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl,” #15, 321-322. The book in question was published by Pedro Posa. Pere Daguí, Janua artis Raimundi Lulli (Barcelona: Pedro Posa, 1488). One wonders if the publication appeared in expectation for dissemination at the Cortes or as a means of establishing the orthodoxy of the work similar to the publication at Rome in 1485. Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 220-221. 46

Roger Chartier, The Order of Books, translated by Lydia Cochrane (Stanford: Stanford University Press,

1994), 8.

187

Boyl and his compatriots. Daguí’s lectures, for one, would have brought them together if Zapata attended simply to hear the controversial interpretation of Llull.47 Queen Isabel also attended the lectures, and as court chaplain one might reasonably assume that the archpriest attended as spiritual advisor to the queen. Furthermore, Daguí, like Zapata, held the office of court chaplain, though in Daguí’s case the position was honorary (causa honoris) rather than functionary. Boyl’s letter to Zapata captured the collegial atmosphere of Zaragoza in the first folios of the text, placing Zapata’s request within the context of friendship as did Descós with Alcalá with regard to the Mallorcan grammarian’s letter collection. At the same time, however the letter shows subtle, important differences, for the larger public audience that would read the text when published alongside the translation. Having heard your request from so much love (caridat), we raise our hands to God, and we praise his goodness that does not cease to continuously provide us with his grace; as much as I was not worthy of so much goodness, so much more in this prologue I cannot silence the joy that I feel in my soul at such news, nor can I express it for my lack of genius despite the lack of genius that regretfully expresses it.48

Here, the idea of charity found in religious writings dominates the more classical friendship found in the letters of Descós. Rather than framing the exchange in the language of Cicero, Boyl described Zapata’s request with language used to express the type of love shared between Christians. He went so far as to single out how Zapata’s desire to print the text derived from the

47

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 219; Mark Smith, Ptolemy's Theory, 51-52; Lorenzo Pérez Martínez, “El maestro Pedro Daguí y el lulismo mallorquín de fines del siglo XV,” Estudios lulianos 12 (1960): 291-306. 48

“Alçamos las manos a dios hoyda vuestra peticion de tanta caridat, y alabamos la su bondad que no cessa de continuo proueer nos de su gracia, porque assi como no era yo sufficiente a tanto bien, assi no puedo en este prohemio callar el gozo que siente mi alma por tal nueua ni por mengua de ingenio como los siente dezillo.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, translated by Bernat Boyl ([Iohann Hurus]: Sant Cugat de VallèsVallès [Zaragoza], 29 November 1489), fols. 2v-3r.

188

archpriest’s hard work and charity brought Isaac’s teaching to the public so that the church would be enlightened by his teachings (caridat vuestra seran alumbrados desta ensenyança). 49 Boyl’s description reflected the important ecclesiological nature of the translation, transferring the friendship and love that Christ had for the apostles to that of the entire church. Haseldine, following Newman, noted how “Christian, or spiritual, friendship, adapted from the classical ideal of disinterested amicitia, provided, alongside the more inclusive caritas, a conceptual model to articulate different relationships, of a more exclusive nature.”50

The

decision to print the letter changed the audience from the single hermit living on the mountain to the Christian Church in the kingdom; it prepared the reader to experience the reading of the De religione as a community of readers (to use Chartier’s term) by Christian charity and not simply an individual reader encountering the text. The choice of language shows how the De religione changed from a personal book of devotion used by Boyl, to a manual of religious instruction for the hermits, to a published book for the reform of the secular church. Access to the text, both in language and in physical copies, became a central component of the principals of charity if it was to serve to reform the church as it had for the hermits. The dissemination of Boyl’s translation in affordable, accessible copies dramatically increased the texts ability to create community around the ideals of a single abba. As I see it, you asked for it so that with your industry and charity (caridat) his beneficial teaching, which until now was hidden and covered due to the lack of copies, would be published with the marvelous machine of the press at little cost, and placed in the hands of those who seek to approach God.51 49 50

Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fols. 2v-3r. Haseldine, “Friends, Friendship and Networks,” 278.

51

“Y pedistes lo segun veo paraque con vuestra industria y caridat la su prouechosa doctrina que fastaque por falta de traslados staua celada y encubierta con el marauilloso artificio dela enprenta publicada, con muy poca costa en manos delos que dessean allegarse a dios.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fols. 2v-3r.

189

The “glorious teaching” of the father could now save the souls of many rather than the few, as printing removed the problem of the lack of books and the vernacular removed the problems of reading the text. Both acts benefited Zapata as much as it did the church. Printing Boyl’s translation gained him spiritual - as well as social - merit since he extended the fruit of Isaac’s doctrine to the body of the faithful.52 This was not a unique act by the archpriest in the name of reform, but an extension of Isaac’s own decision to leave the desert and share his wisdom with the church in an act of charity.53 As Isaac disseminated his wisdom and gained merit by composing a book for the benefit of other Christians, so too did Boyl for the hermits through his translation and Zapata via printing the text help to reform the church. Each acted out of the same universal Christian principal of love for neighbor first demonstrated by Christ in the Incarnation. Still, Boyl recognized something creative and different in Zapata’s actions: by printing the text “we can say that it has been made anew.”54 Boyl and Zapata’s joint interest in reform through the publication of the De religione reflected the concerns for reviving the church shared by the groups of friends at Zaragoza, who worked together to introduce Observantine reforms in Mallorca as Boyl attempted at Montserrat.

52

“Ca si la sancta doctrina del glorioso padre no podia saluo a muy pocos por mengua de libros antes de ahora aprouechar, tanto es mayor de presente el beneficio y el merito por consiguiente, que se gana en publicar la, quantos mas seran aquellos que por la studiosa caridat vuestra seran alumbrados desta ensenyança. Por que assi como no siendo publicada su doctrina, y por esta causa poco o ningun fructo faziendo.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 3r. 53

“Porende si el galardon y paga deue de ser segun la obra y aquel entonces por su caridad componiendo este libro: gano gran merito, que podra sperar aquel por quien del fin porque se fizo a hora gozaran tantos…quan gloriosamente este sancto uiejo ysach a nuestra necessidat con su trabajo soccorrio y con su caridat proueyo. Ca no es pequenyo ellamor que enlas proprias affliciones y lloros delos agenos males se duele, y entre los sus gemidos delos nuestros se acuerda y con sus lagrimas a las nuestras consuela. Y porque aquello que con tanta sabiduria trabajo, y con tal diligencia obro conla flaqueza dela humana condicion no peligrasse con tanta fee y caridat compuso este libro.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fols. 3v and 4r. Emphasis mine. 54

“Podemos dezir hauer sydo fecha de nueuo.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, fol. 3rv.

190

Alcalá, for example, was a member of the Observantine wing of the Franciscan Order. When promoted to the provincial leadership in Aragón, he and Descós tried to reform the Conventual Franciscans at the house of San Francisco in Palma de Mallorca. Vadell, an Observantine Franciscan preacher, likewise supported Descós and Alcalá in the Franciscan reforms in Mallorca.55 As Hillgarth observed, Alcalá and Descós’ joint interest in Llull and religious reform linked their desire to share the “practical” aspects of Llullism in the interest of the church as much as establishing a community of friends devoted to a more scholarly study of Llull.56 Boyl and Zapata’s simply adopted a more venerable icon and less controversial writer on the religious life to fulfill the same ideals at Zaragoza. Boyl’s and Zapata’s actions were not independent from their duties to the crown. All civic leaders and members of the court needed to work together and provide an example of “la vida honesta,” an upstanding way of life as a model for other persons reflective of the dignity of the church and crown.57 Boyl’s willingness to print his translation bolstered his work as a religious reformer within the Spanish Kingdoms, since, like Zapata, he now held a position of leadership as superior of the hermits of Montserrat.58 Both the archpriest and the hermit simply turned the methods and sources used for the reforms of Montserrat into a model for general 55

Pedro Sanahuja, Historia de la Seráfica provincia de Cataluña (Barcelona: Editorial Seráfica, 1956),

56

Hillgarth, Readers and Books, 1: 223.

292.

57

Azcona, “Reforma del episcopado y del clero,” 161-163 and 179-182; Edwards, Spain of the Catholic Monarchs, 210-212; Hillgarth, Spanish Kingdoms, 2: 400-410. 58

Azcona asserted that Zapata was a major figure in the reform of the Castilian church. No evidence supports this conclusion outside of the publication of the De religione. Azcona’s assertion likely resulted from a confusion with the activities of Isabel’s confessor, the inquisitor Martín García de Casp, archdeacon of Daroca and future bishop of Barcelona (d. 1512), Bishop Martín Ponce of Messina (d. 1500) and Sancho de Aceves, vicargeneral of Zaragoza. Documents from 1496 published by García Oro identify Martín García as one of the appointed visitadores and reformers in the diocese. Tarsicio de Azcona, Isabel la Católica: estudio crítico de su vida y reinado, 3rd ed. (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1995), 766; García Oro, La reforma de los religiosos españoles en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos (Valladolid: 1969), 75.

191

church reform; they called on the traditional notion that monks and hermits provided an example for the Christian religious life of the laity and secular church.59 The process became a social affair (une affaire sociale), which emphasized collaboration between the religious and secular clergy and the laity to fulfill their duties to the Catholic Monarchs.60 To fulfill these obligations, Boyl only need time to prepare the text and send it to his friend at Zaragoza; this he did in the fall of 1489 when he returned to Montserrat after lengthy negations with France after the Cortes of Zaragoza ended in the early 1488.

Conclusion I have argued that the 1489 printed edition of Bernat Boyl’s translation of Isaac of Nineveh’s De religione derived from a complex mix of social and cultural relationships between Zapata and Boyl that began almost decades prior to its publication. Their political and religious careers, in addition to their friendship, led to Zapata’s decision to print the book. The friendship and mutual service to the crown that began at Zaragoza under Archbishop Juan de Aragón ultimately bore fruit with the publication of the De religione in the fall of 1489.The decision to print the text also responded to the needs of the church and not that of the small community of hermits. Reform of the church outside the hermitage required inexpensive and multiple copies to provide religious instruction for a much larger lay audience than that found at the hermitage of Montserrat. Yet, the new audience merely expanded the Boyl’s goal for Observantinism at Montserrat to those of the laity; language, medium, and text all worked together to solidify the 59

De la Torre, “Algunos puntos,” #14, 484.

60

Adeline Rucquoi, “La réforme monastique en Castille au XVe siècle: une affaire sociale,” in Horizons marins itenéraires spirituels (Ve - XVIIIe siècles), edited by Henri Dubois, Jean-Claude Hocquet, and André Vauchez, 2 vols., Histoire ancienne et médiévale 20 (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1987), 1: 246.

192

bonds of the Christian ecclesia inside and outside the monastery through a common text used in religious formation. Where Isaac served as the model for the hermits, the hermits and Isaac became the model for the church. Observantinism, far from being a practice restricted to the hermits, became the devotional life guiding the practices of the laity. Boyl never saw printing as a tool to reform the hermits. Instead, the use of manuscripts at Montserrat followed the traditional monastic practice of copying texts as a form of spiritual exercises and manual labor. Printing as a deliberate method of reform at Montserrat would have to wait until the reforms of García Jiménez de Cisneros. Ironically, Cisneros did not decide to reprint Boyl’s translation for the hermits at Montserrat as one might expect. Rather, he printed the Latin version of the De religione in 1497 as a companion volume to the 1489 edition in as a new means to provide uniform bilingual texts to unify the members of the eremitic community when they resisted the introduction of Observantinism by the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid in the summer of 1493.

193

CHAPTER SIX THE CONGREGATION OF SAN BENITO DE VALLADOLID AND THE REFORM OF THE HERMITS OF MONTSERRAT, 1493-1497

Introduction The change in the constitutional and religious status of the hermits under the Congregation of Valladolid began a new history in the customs and devotional life on the mountain of Montserrat. Previous reforms had left the eremitic community with a large degree of independence despite the increasing jurisdiction of the monastery from the fourteenth century onward. In contrast, the congregation ended the traditional organization of the eremitic community as a loose gathering of semi-independent lay religious tied to the monastery by an oath of obedience given to the abbot in exchange for material support. In its place, García Jiménez de Cisneros (d. 1510), the new Vallisoletano prior of Montserrat, required the hermits to be trained and professed as Benedictine monks within the monastic community before entering the hermitage.

To enforce this change, the prior and the congregation composed a new

constitution, the Constitutiones haeremitarum Montisserati, solely devoted to the government and organization of the eremitic community in February 1494. The 1494 constitution, however, was not the first agreement made between the Vallisoletano monks and the hermits. In July 1493, the hermits completed a special legal agreement, La capitulatión del prior y monges de Montserrate con los hermitaños, with Congregation de San Benito de Valladolid as a precondition for their acceptance of the 194

congregation’s administration of the hermitage.1 On the one hand, the Capitulatión demonstrated the reformers willingness to accept a policy respecting the semi-independent and secular nature of the hermits. On the other hand, the reformers ended the traditional status of the hermits as lay religious with the 1494 Constitutiones in favor of their complete incorporation into the coenobitic community as professed monks under the the Congregation de Valladolid.2 The Captiulación provided nothing more than a temporary arrangement between the hermits and the monks until the congregation could impose the Constitutiones haeremitarum montiserrati on the community in 1494. Seeing the agreement as a temporary action taken by the congregation, however, fails to recognize how the hermits used the Capitulatión as a means to protect their traditions from the monks of Valladolid.

If we look at the agreement as a product of the conflict over reform

between 1480 and 1493, the Capitulatión reveals how the hermits attempted to their independence rather than simply submitting to the authority of the. Recognizing the hermits’ active role to defend their traditions and the congregation’s initial willingness to agree to these traditions explains why the hermits rebelled against the congregation when the monks imposed the Constitutiones haeremitarum in 1494. The congregation’s abandonment of their agreement in favor of centralized authority and constitutional uniformity radically disrupted the life of the

1

“La capitulatión del prior y monges de montserrate con los hermitaños,” in García Jiménez de Cisneros, García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, edited by Cipriano Baraut, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 1: 179-175 (hereafter cited as La capitulatión del prior y monges); García M. Colombás, Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, abad de Montserrat, Studia et documenta 5 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955), 114-118. 2

“Constitutiones haeremitarum montisserrati,” in García Jiménez de Cisneros, García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, edited by Cipriano Baraut, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 2: 458-475 (hereafter cited as Constitutiones haeremitarum). Bonifacio Soler first suggested this thesis without knowing of the existence of the 1493 Capitulatión. Bonifacio Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños de Montserrat,” Revista Montserratina 5 (1911): 435.

195

solitaries, and as a result, necessitated García Jiménez de Cisneros’ proactive efforts to reestablish peace in the hermitage six months into the reforms at Montserrat.

The Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid and Montserrat King Fernando II, despite more than a decade of reform under Abbot Joan Peralta and Bernat Boyl, failed to realize his ambitious plans to turn Montserrat into a model of Benedictine Observantinism in the Aragonese Kingdoms. On the one hand, Fernando II failed to convince the papacy to relinquish its rights to appoint future abbots to the monastery, thus nullifying the anti-commendam policies of Observantine monasticism. On the other hand, both the king and the reformers could not persuade a Benedictine congregation to send a select group of monks to train the community in Observantinism without giving up control over the monastery. The tenyear failure to convince either the pope or a congregation to aid in his reforms ultimately forced the king to abandon his plan to maintain Montserrat’s independence. Instead, he reluctantly reduced the abbey to a dependent priory within the Observantine Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid in the summer of 1493 with the help of the recently appointed Valencian Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503). Fernando II took immediate steps to subordinate the abbey to the Congregation of Valladolid upon the arrival of Alexander VI’ bull Iunctum nobis in the spring of 1493, when Pere Bauda, a canon lawyer, judge and papal notary, announced the monastery’s transfer to Valladolid.3 Bauda outlined several provisions detailing the reformers’ authority to avoid the

3

Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción del monasterio de Montserrat al de San Benito de Valladolid,” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): #2, 98-102; Idem, Un reformador, 80; Anselm M. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’abat Joan de Peralta i del Reis Catolics en la reforma de Montserrat,” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): 41.

196

problems that had arisen during the reforms of de Peralta and Boyl. First, anyone who did not recognize the congregation’s rights had six days to announce their intent to challenge the documents. Second, those who rejected the reforms had six days to leave the community and would be provided with compensation to settle at another monastery. Third, the monks and hermits who remained needed to accept the full authority of the congregation upon their arrival at Montserrat. Finally, anyone who impeded the pope’s action fell under the ban of interdiction and excommunication. In contrast to the previous reforms, no opposition surfaced at this time. On April 23, the Catholic Monarchs informed Prior-General Juan de San Juan de Luz (d. 1499) that Montserrat had become a dependent priory and reminded the congregation of their duty to reform the community according to Observantinism.4 To hasten the process, Fernando asked the prior-general to send monks and a prior “of such character and teaching” to begin the reform as soon as possible.5 On the same day, Fernando and Isabel informed Montserrat of their new status as dependent monks of San Benito de Valladolid now that Joan de Peralta had renounced his abbacy and transferred to the bishopric of Vic.6 They also informed Montserrat that a new prior and monks from the congregation would soon arrive to begin the reform. Fernando, after ten years of effort, would not wait. He took advantage of two Vallisoletano monks who had recently arrived at Barcelona from Rome, García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela, and

4

Fernando II and Isabel I to Juan de San Juan de Luz, prior-general of the Congregation de San Benito de Valladolid. Barcelona, 23 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #60, 84; Colombás, Un reformador, 81. 5

Barcelona, 23 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #60, 84; Colombás, Un reformador, 81. 6

Fernando II and Isabel I to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 23 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #61, 84-85.

197

commanded them to immediately assume control of the abbey and arrange for the arrival of the prior-general.7

Montserrat, for its part, would accept the new administrators and offer no

resistance to their reforms.8 Their jurisdiction, however, was not as clear as the king’s letter implied. As Albareda noted, the Congregation de Valladolid had not formally taken possession of the house or designated Jiménez de Cisneros or de Tudela as official procurators.9 Montserrat remained in a muddled legal state until either the prior-general or official letters from the congregation arrived authorizing the monks’ jurisdiction over the community. Discord between the two groups erupted less than a week after the Castilian monks arrived at their new priory.10 Montserrat refused to fund the Congregation of Valladolid’s travel expenses, citing the impoverished state of the community.11

The king informed his new

reformers to bend to local needs rather than insisting on their jurisdiction. He reminded them that they should first look to the financial situation at the priory since the community could not even provide hospitality to pilgrims. Fernando warned that any extreme actions taken during the early days of the reform placed the whole project in jeopardy and created a public scandal that would drive away pilgrims and benefactors. This, according to the king, diminished their ability

7

Fernando II and Isabel I to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 23 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #61, 84-85; Colombás, Un reformador, 80. 8

Fernando II and Isabel I to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 23 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #61, 85. 9

Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 42.

10

Colombás suggested that Fernando composed the letter in Castilian and not in Catalan, increasing the illmood at Montserrat. Whether true or not, his conclusion foreshadowed the ensuing difficulties that the Castilian monks had in understanding local Catalan culture and language. If language was an issue, there would be some question as to why the letters were not written in Latin. Also, Boyl translated the De religione into Castilian despite his fluency in Catalan, which demonstrates the willingness to accept Castilian among the hermits prior to the arrival of the Vallisoletano monks. Colombás, Un reformador, 82-83. 11

Fernando II and Isabel I to García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #62, 85.

198

to receive future donations and hampered the their ability to serve as a model of Christian piety for those visiting the shrine.12 The king therefore ordered the monks not to send the money, but instead allow the prior-general to settle the issue once he arrived.13 The king’s intervention did little to solve the situation at Montserrat. Two days later, Juan de Tudela advised the king in person that Benet Cardona, the current majordomo, had removed the previous month’s alms from the cashbox without informing the new administrators to stop the travel allowance from being sent to the prior-general.14 The king, astonished by the news (lo qual nos maravillamos mucho), ordered the community to return the money and handover the cashbox.15 Fernando, however, maintained his sensitivity to the priory’s financial concerns. Rather than allowing the congregation to install its own secular administrators, he “recommended” that the reformers continue to use local administrators familiar with Montserrat.16 Financial disagreements quickly spilled over into the devotional life on the mountain. This new conflict resulted from the hasty introduction of new, foreign religious customs into the monastery. In June, Fernando wrote two letters to the reformers ordering them to respect local

12

Fernando II and Isabel I to García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela. Barcelona, 28 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #62, 85. 13

The prior-general settled the dispute soon after his arrival and ordered all future visitators to be paid fifty gold Aragonese florins to complete their official responsibilities. Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 110. 14

Fernando II and Isabel I to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 30 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 41 and #63, 86; Colombás, Un reformador, 83. 15

Fernando II and Isabel I to the monks of Montserrat. Barcelona, 30 April 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #63, 86. 16

Fernando advised retaining the procurators Mossèn Fari and Mossèn Vicent and the majordomo Pere Cosconera. However, he suggested Micer Guardiola as the new advocate, Micer Mates as the new escribano, and Master Condonsol as the new doctor. Fernando II and Isabel I to García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela. Barcelona, 7 June 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #65, 87.

199

customs and proceed with moderation in their reforms, particularly with regard to their relationship with pilgrims.17 In the first letter, he advised Jiménez de Cisneros and de Tudela to listen to the priests’ advice, while in the second letter he singled out the expertise of the eremitic community, telling the reformers to listen to the advice of the hermit Joan de Enguidanos for his knowledge of local customs. De Enguidanos’s role as an advisor, rather than one of the current monks, is striking. Fernando perhaps saw enough tension in the community that the intervention of a hermit would provide a moderating influence while the reformers adjusted to local customs. The king’s letters reveal three important issues that confronted the Congregation of Valladolid. First, the Castilian monks lacked real knowledge of the social, cultural, and religious customs in the Catalan monastery. As we have seen, this ignorance disrupted the traditional life at the monastery for both the monks and the laity who peregrinated to the shrine of the Virgin. Secondly, the congregation’s lack of knowledge of these customs required advice from members of the community and a certain willingness to respect and incorporate these customs into their reforms. Third, a disordered community endangered the success of the Catholic Monarchs’ ecclesiological ideal of reform based on Observantinism. The reformers therefore needed to introduce their own customs with a measure of moderation to avoid scandal and maintain peace within and outside the hermitage and the monastery. The general-prior and the congregation began establishing policies for reforming Montserrat prior to their departure from Valladolid. On June 7, the chapter of San Benito commissioned a royal and papal notary to confirm their jurisdiction over the monastery.18 The

17

Fernando II and Isabel I to García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela. Barcelona, 7 June 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #65, 87. 18

Fernando Daza, publicum instrumentum. Valladolid, 7 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 104-107; Idem, Un reformador, 85; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” 42; Zaragoza

200

document also recorded the appointment of the first official procurators - Prior-General Juan de San Juan de Luz, Juan de Bartolina, and Subprior García Jiménez de Cisneros (in absentia) who would take possession, administer, and reform the community.19 It was agreed here that the procurators would immediately require Montserrat’s monks to give absolute obedience to the congregation’s constitutions, the prior-general and the chapter of San Benito de Valladolid.20 This was not restricted to the monks. The congregation expected the hermits, clergy, and donats to give total obedience once the procurators arrived at the monastery. For the congregation, absolute obedience and the use of uniform constitutions alone provided the proper regulated way of life needed to correctly perform the Divine Office.21 Proper order directly related to proper worship, underscoring the inseparable nature of constitutional life and religious practices for the Congregation de Valladolid. The extreme emphasis on obedience and uniformity responded to two recent conflicts within the congregation that pitched dependent priories seeking greater freedom from San Benito against ardent centralists that demanded strict adherence to the customs, ceremonials and the motherhouse. The conflict erupted during the priorate of Juan de Soria (d. 1521), when the Catholic Monarchs first approached the congregation to reform Montserrat in 1486. The dispute involved the rules for electing the prior-general, who at this time could only be elected from San Benito de Valladolid and by the general chapter (conveniently restricted to monks from the Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación de San Benito de Valladolid: Los priores (1390-1499) (Burgos: Imprenta de Aldecoa, 1973), 1: 203. 19

Fernando Daza, publicum instrumentum. Valladolid, 7 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 106. 20

Fernando Daza, publicum instrumentum. Valladolid, 7 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 105. 21

Fernando Daza, publicum instrumentum. Valladolid, 7 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 105.

201

motherhouse).22 The suffragan monasteries also disputed San Benito’s authority to carry out visitations and confirm elections of the local superior, thus reducing their power within their own communities. The conflict ended at an impasse under Juan de Soria, but quickly resurfaced in 1489 under his successor, Juan de San Juan de Luz.23 Soon after his election in September 1488, the prior-general and his closest supporters, García Jiménez de Cisneros (currently his subprior) and the previous prior-general Juan de Soria began rewriting the congregation’s constitutions based on the absolute authority of the prior-general and monks of Valladolid over all suffragan monasteries.24 For example, the new Constituciones del capítulo general de 1489 stipulated that the prior-general ruled for life rather than a triennial term.25 Biennially elected priors in the other monasteries needed to make formal promises of obedience directly to the prior-general. Finally, only the prior-general and the monks of San Benito de Valladolid could serve as diffinitors of the congregation, having sole authority to uphold or change the constitutions and ceremonials.26 As García Colombás noted, “all jurisdiction within the congregation remained in the hands of the prior and the elders [of Valladolid].”27 The centralists’ policies lasted little more than a year. 28 22

Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación, 1: 179-180. García M. Colombás and Mateo M. Gost, Estudios sobre el primer siglo de San Benito de Valladolid, Studia et documenta 3 (Barcelona: A. Horta de Impresiones y Ediciones, 1954), 72. 23

Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación 1: 190; Colombás and Gost, Estudios sobre el primer siglo de San Benito, 72. 24

Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación 1: 190-191. Colombás, Un reformador benedictino,

34. 25

“Constituciones del capítulo general de 1489.” Valladolid, 18 May 1489. Colombás and Gost, Estudios sobre el primer siglo de San Benito, Appendix IV, 124-132. 26

Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 35 and 38; Colombás and Gost, Estudios sobre el primer siglo de San Benito, 73 and 77-78; Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación 1: 192; Tarsicio de Azcona, Isabel la Católica. Estudio crítico de su vida y su reinado, 3rd ed. (Madrid: Biblioteca de autores cristianos, 1993), 731732.

202

By 1491, the Abbeys of San Salvador de Oña and San Juan de Burgos received their independence from the jurisdiction of San Benito de Valladolid, except in the case of visitations conducted on a biennial basis. These visitations had little authority, as the communities of Oña and Burgos could select the independent Observantine community of San Claudio de León to conduct the visitation instead of the congregation.29 The conflicts over authority and jurisdiction in the congregation between 1485 and 1491 left a bitter taste in the mouths of Juan de San Juan de la Luz and the centralist party. In this situation, the leaders would be opposed to any measure of local institutional freedom from the jurisdiction and customs of San Benito de Valladolid. Montserrat, as a new member of the congregation, would in every way have to conform to the principals of monastic government and religious life as determined solely by the general-prior and chapter.30 The monk’s had practical concerns given Montserrat’s distance from Valladolid. Their experience had shown that reforms without complete jurisdiction often led to disaster, often resulting in the abuse of the reforming monks, a split of the community into two groups under two superiors and the refusal to provide material support for the reformers.31 These concerns over jurisdiction were exacerbated by the conflicts between the priories and San Benito de Valladolid. In their view, failure to maintain spiritual discipline based on the uniformity of constitutional and ceremonial practices jeopardized the spiritual integrity of the congregation. Since Montserrat was now a member of a

27

Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 38.

28

Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación 1: 195-196; Colombás, Un reformador benedictino,

29

Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregación 1: 196; Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 47.

30

“Constituciones del capítulo general de 1489,” c. 3, 125-126.

31

Colombás, Un reformador benedictino, 71.

45-46.

203

corporate body under the head of San Benito de Valladolid, they simply needed to conform or risk damaging the body. As the hermits now formed part of this body, their lives would necessarily be restructured to conform to the congregation’s constitutions. Juan de San Juan de la Luz and the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid officially took possession of Montserrat on 28 June 1493. After reading Alexander’s bull and receiving the keys to the gate, the prior-general proceeded to the church where he announced the strict obedience to be given to the congregation and its constitutions.32 Standing at the altar, he restated the legality of the incorporation of Montserrat into the congregation and the jurisdiction of San Benito de Valladolid over the community. He then announced that Montserrat would now follow the regular observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the strict policy of enclosure according to the Constitutions of Valladolid.33 The prior-general reminded everyone that they either had to voluntarily agree to live under their authority or depart from the community.34 Juan de San Juan de la Luz needed to complete one final act before approaching the hermits: the election of the new local prior. The election required the preparation of careful legal record to confirm its legality as part of the congregation’s continued concern over possible challenges to their new jurisdiction. Juan de San Juan de Luz summoned the monks for the election on 3 July 1493.35 The hermits, as per custom, were not allowed to vote. After reading 32

Colombás noted that no Catalan officials appeared in the original records, despite the fact that an unnamed conseller of Barcelona appeared in the early modern histories of Montserrat. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” 93. 33

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 109. 34

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 109. 35

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 112; Idem, Un reformador, 87-89; Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregation, 1: 204-205.

204

the chapter on the election of the abbot from the Rule of Saint Benedict, the prior-general selected Cristóbal del Bueso and Bernardo de Casali to collect the ballots and seal them in a box. Juan de San Juan de Luz named Juan de Bartolina, Bernardo de Casali, and Alfonso de San Cipriano as judges of the ballots.36 Once they had completed the count, Juan de Bartolina announced García Jiménez de Cisneros as the new prior of Montserrat. Juan de San Juan de Luz then hung a notice outside the chapter asking anybody who felt the election to be fraudulent, or believed they had the right to serve as prior instead of Jiménez de Cisneros, had three hours to step forward and make their claim.37 No challenge to the election occurred and the election was entered into the public record. The rites installing Jiménez de Cisneros followed the highly centralized constitutions written by Juan de San Juan de Luz in 1489 as opposed to the modified customs used by San Juan de Burgos and San Salvador de Oña.38 The new prior then offered his oath of obedience, both orally and in a signed and sealed document, to the prior-general, the congregation, and the congregation’s constitutions.39

Upon receiving this oath, the prior-general transferred the

spiritual and temporal authority to the new prior.40 The new prior now received obedience and submission of each of his monks through the ritual kissing of his hands. The notary Francesc de 36

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 112; Colombás, Un reformador, 87-89; Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregation, 1: 204-205. 37

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 112; Colombás, Un reformador, 87-89; Zaragoza Pascual, Los generales de la Congregation, 1: 204-205. 38

“Constituciones del capítulo general de 1489,” 131; Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 112-114. 39

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 112-114. 40

Bartolomé de Valladolid, publicum instrumentum. Montserrat, 28 June 1493. Colombás, “Documentos sobre la sujeción,” #4, 113.

205

Roselló then reread Alexander VI’s bull in the choir to affirm the pope’s authority behind the election and the obedience owed to the new prior. With the election complete, King Fernando II de Aragón’s finally realized his desire to reform Montserrat. The reformers could now complete the total reorganization of the monastery and introduce the principals of Benedictine Observantinism as understood and practiced by the congregation.

Yet these reforms did not remain within the coenobitic community.

The

introduction of Observantinism transferred to the hermitage on account of the dependant relationship between the superior of Montserrat and the eremitic community. The reformers, given their insistence on uniformity, would by necessity expect the hermits to take on the character of the coenobitic monk living under the authority of the prior-general, congregation, and constitutions of San Benito de Valladolid. This process, as with the monks, met with resistance at the hermitage. The problem was clear. The reformers had to convince the hermits to accept their new model of coenobitic life or risk their expulsion. Change was coming to the hermits, but the extent of that had yet to be determined.

The Capitulatión of 1493 The hermits were well aware that the Congregation of Valladolid would change their relationship with the monastery when they brought their new constitutions and ceremonials to Montserrat. They saw no benefit in waiting and instead immediately set out to defend their rights against any attempt by the congregation to impose constitutional changes without their consent. To secure their rights, they adopted a common form of legal protection known as the capitulatio: an agreement made between a new superior and a religious community that required

206

the superior to submit to limitations on his rights as a precondition for confirming his authority and jurisdiction.41 The capitulatio originated in the twelfth century as a response to the appointment of superiors (primarily bishops and laymen) not elected by the community. It became more common in the fourteenth and fifteenth century when the papacy and kings increasingly used commendam abbacies to reward their allies during the Great Schism. The papacy, for obvious political reasons, condemned the use of the capitulatio, though they based their argument on theological grounds. They argued that these agreements usurped the traditional rights of the abbot over the community.42 At times, the papacy sided with the community against a new abbot, though in these situations the new superior was normally a papal enemy. Despite periodic condemnations, however, monks and nuns increasingly used the capitulatio to prevent abuses by abbots not elected by the community.43 Control over the community’s property and spiritual discipline was simply too important for the good order and peace of the house to leave it in the hands of an unknown superior.44 Economic concerns dominated most capitulatio documents. The agreements provided detailed information on the superior’s ability and inability to alienate or purchase property.45 At 41

Ursmer Berlière, Les èlections abbatiales au moyen âge, Académie royale de Belgique. Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques. Mémoires. Collection in-8. 2e série 20, 3 (Brussels: Lamertin, 1927), 50-52; David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), 3: 275276. 42

Berlière, Les èlections abbatiales, 22-29 and 51-52. Alfred Sweet, “The Apostolic See and the Heads of English Religious Houses,” Speculum 28/3 (1953): 472. 43

For women’s communities, see H.T. Hoederath “Die Wahlkapitulationen der Fürstäbtissinnen von Essen,” Beiträge zur Geschichtevan Statdt und Stift Essen 44 (1926): 101-143 and the review of the article in “Chronique-Allemagne,” Revue d’historie ecclésiastique 23 (1927): 377. Article cited in Belière, Les èlections abbatiales, 52 n. 9. 44

Berlière, Les èlections abbatiales, 51.

45

Berlière, Les èlections abbatiales, 50.

207

times, this involved individual offices, as at the Monastery of Paulinzelle, where the monks forced the abbot to maintain the dues owed to each obedientiary according to “ancient customs”.46

Many agreements included minute details over payments made between the

community and the superior as part of an elaborate exchange of services that governed the dayto-day life of the monastery. At the Abbey of Westminster, for example, the monks forced Abbot Walter de Wenlock (d. 1307) not only to agree to pay for the doctor of the monastery, but also to receive just twelve pence as an exenia during his annual bloodletting.47 The importance given to such agreements appears when we look at the recording the document into the monastery’s liturgical calendar. Westminster’s monks transcribed de Wenlok’s agreement into the community’s martyrology and ordered it read yearly in chapter on the first non-feast day after Epiphany, in effect uniting the monks’ worship and the legal agreement with the abbot.48 Religious communities often combined temporal matters (temporalia) and spiritual matters (spiritualia) in the same document. In 1316, the community of Sarlat removed the abbot’s power to approve new novices by restricting the number of monks in the monastery to protect their income (the new monks likely being superfluous or bastard sons from the abbot’s family). They also forbade the abbot from appointing benefice holders unless they were of the appropriate canonical age, thus avoiding the use of oblates as pawns to increase his family’s

46

“Capitulation of Abbot Kaspar Losbart, Prior Sifried Elengast, and the brothers of Paulinzelle.” Paulinzelle, 13 November 1483. Ernst Anemüller, ed., Urkundenbuch des Klosters Pualinzelle 1068-1534 (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1905), #485, 427. 47

Harold Pearce, Walter de Wenlok Abbot of Westminster (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920), 144. In England, agreements between the monks and the abbot were called compositions (compositiones). “Ordinance Made by Prior John de Coleworth and the Convent of Westminster. Westminster, 31 December 1283 and 2 January 1284,” in Documents Illustrating the Rule of Walter de Wenlok, Abbot of Westminster, 1283-1307, edited by Barbara F. Harvey, Camden Fourth Series 2 (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1965), 232. 48

“Ordinance Made by Prior John de Coleworth,” 232.

208

holdings.49 Abbot Richard Crokesley of Westminster (d. 1258) even agreed not to send monks on missions outside the cloister without reasonable cause and the approval of the chapter.50 This avoided the obligation of paying the cost of a journey in addition to protecting the monks from breaking their oath of stability.51 At the same time, several restrictions were placed on the rights of visitation, correction and punishment. For instance, Abbot de Wenlock and Abbot Losbart agreed not to imprison a monk for faults unless it was a clear case of theft or some other heinous offense contrary to the constitutions.52 This limited the abbot’s right to correct his monks: a remarkable reversal of the Rule of Saint Benedict where the abbot alone held the authority to level penances and administer punishments. De Wenlok and Losbart’s agreement weakened the role of the abbot as the spiritual father in charge of discipline in the community.53 In this sense, the threat of abbatial abuse proved stronger than maintaining the traditional ideal of the abbot as outlined in the Rule of Saint Benedict. As Belière noted, “if at the beginning these conventions were contrary to the spirit of discipline, there were moments where the good of the monasteries went before the interests of a single individual.”54 By the fifteenth century, the capitulatio 49

Berlière, Les èlections abbatiales, 51.

50

“Agreement between Richard of Crokesley and the Convent of Westminster.” Woodstock, 16 August 1252,” in Documents Illustrating the Rule of Walter de Wenlok, Abbot of Westminster, 1283-1307, edited by Barbara F. Harvey, Camden Fourth Series 2 (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1965), 229; Pearce, Walter de Wenlok, 142-143. 51

At the monastery of Paulinzelle, the monks maintained the right to leave on the monastery whenever they chose without the consent of the abbot as long as it was for a just cause. “Capitulation of Abbot Kaspar Losbart,” #485, 427. 52

“Ordinance Made by Prior John de Coleworth,” 230; Pearce, Walter de Wenlok, 143. “Capitulation of Abbot Kaspar Losbart,” #485, 427. 53

Pierre Salmon, The Abbot in Monastic Tradition: A Contribution to the History of the Perpetual Character of the Office of Religious Superiors in the West, translated by Claire Lavoie (Washington D.C.: Cistercian Publications Consortium Press, 1972), 106. 54

“Si, in principe, ces conventions étaient contraires à l’esprit de discipline, il y avait des moments où le bien des monastères davait primer intérets d’un seul individu.” Berlière, Les èlections abbatiales, 51.

209

became the most effective means to limit the temporal and spiritual power of any new superior and to preserve the most important local customs held by the community. The capitulatio offered the hermits an established means to preserve their traditions and offset any potential abuses resulting from changes enacted by the Congregation of Valladolid. They were keenly aware that inaction risked losing their independence, their customs, and the end of their status as lay religious. They had already “missed the boat” once and suffered during the abbacy of Joan de Peralta and presidency of Bernat Boyl. To avoid this mistake, they argued that tradition, rather than innovation, preserved the spiritual discipline of the community. And [The hermits] said on behalf of themselves and in the name of their other absent brothers, and all that are to come, that they asked and requested out of courtesy of the said father priors, that for as much as it had pleased our Lord to reform (reformar) this holy house at the present time, and had brought people of such regard, that they requested them to confirm the institutions and customs (instituciones y costumbres) of the said mountain where they had ruled and governed themselves (se regían y governavan), and had lived until now, for the quiet (quietud) and peace (paz) of the other hermits.55

The hermits acknowledged the benefits of reforming the monastery, showing no direct animosity to the reformers and their actions concerning the monks. However, the agreement rejected any need to reform the hermitage. Instead, they informed the congregation that self-governance according to longstanding customs produced quiet and peace (quietud y paz) in the community. The proposed agreement could not be more explicit in its purpose. Any changes imposed on the hermits would lead to conflict on the mountain, a not so subtle allusion to the off and on again turmoil during the previous reforms under Boyl and de Peralta. 55

“Y los quales dixeron que ellos por sy y en nombre de los otros sus hermanos absentes y de todos los otros por venir, que suplicavan y suplicaron a sus reverencias de los dichos padres priores, que por cuanto a nuestro Señor avía plazido en estos tiempos de agora reformar esta santa casa y avía traido personas de tanta veneración, que les plugiese, para la quietud y la paz de los otros hermitaños, de les confirmar sus instituciones y costumbres que la dicha montaña tenía, por donde ellos se regían y governavan, y avían bivido hasta aquí.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

210

The hermits had great concerns over their status as lay religious. They insisted on maintaining their simple vows as secular religious rather than taking solemn vows as monks. They informed the congregation that they “did not make any other vow except obedience to the superior who presided over this house, or to the one who stood in his place.”56 Though they professed poverty, obedience and chastity, they gave nothing more than obedience to the superior, who could “correct delinquents when they made some fault that was worthy of punishment.”57 The hermits restricted the superior’s authority to that of a visitator, as first enacted by Archbishop Joan de Aragón in 1330 and reaffirmed by Benedict XIII in 1409. The agreement also described the monastery’s obligation to provide material support. These obligations closely followed the customs outlined by Abbots Marc de Vilalba and Antoni Pere Ferrer.58

Nearly quoting Ferrer’s text - an example of their concern to legitimize their

customs - the hermits asked the monks “to provide them with food and clothing, bread and wine of the same [type] that the monastery eats as would suffice them; and [to provide] eleven and one half solidos each month to every hermit for all other necessities” needed to support their lives without worldly distractions.59 These obligations included provisions for sufficient salt and

56

“Primeramente, que ellos no fazían otro voto syno de obediencia al superior que en esta casa presydía, o al que en su lugar estoviese.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173. 57

“Para corregir a los delinquentes quando algund delito hizieren que fuese digno de castigo.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173. 58

Benet Ribas i Calaf, ed., “Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer,” Annals de Montserrat, (12581485), edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler, Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52 (Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 274 and 280 (hereafter cited as Constitutions of Abbot Antoni Pere Ferrer); Cebrià Baraut, “Entorn de la vinguda de monjos de Montecassino à Montserrat (1443-1455),” Studia monastica 18 (1975): #11, 319-320 and 327. 59

“Que les oviese de dar para su vito y vestido, pan y vino quanto les bastase, de lo mismo que el convento comiere; y para las otras necesydades todas que les ocurriesen, honze sueldos y medio en cada mes a cada un hermitaño, lo qual pedían ansy les fuese confirmado.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

211

candles and providing a doctor and medicine when necessary. 60 Joint participation in the principal feasts of the liturgical year, including the privilege of dining in the refectory, continued.61 Rules governing personal property remained the same. These included the hermits’ ability to distribute and acquire property during their lives and distribute this property upon their death: “[They] had the custom to use and distribute freely all the things that they might have had in any way during their life, except those things which counted as acquisitions and gifts not for the person but for the house, and this [applied] during his life.”62 When a hermit died, all his possessions transferred to the superior, but did not become part of the monastery’s property. The superior only controlled the redistribution of the items among the hermits, except for the deceased hermit’s clothes, which the solitaries preferred to distribute amongst each other. The hermits insisted on the right to leave the hermitage when they desired. As a sign of this independence, they refused to vow stability or follow the regulations governing strict enclosure found in the constitutions of the Congregation de Valladolid. Instead, they insisted on the right to leave the hermitage temporarily to conduct business or perform penance.63 The solitaries did acknowledge some limitations with regard to their ability to leave their cells. On the one hand, they agreed not to travel without the permission of the superior (con licencia del superior). However, they considered the prior’s consent largely pro forma. Despite the vow of obedience, the prior “was accustomed to give him [the hermit] permission, when he judged it not 60

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

61

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 175.

62

“Otrosy dixeron que tenían de costumbre los dichos hermitaños de en su vida husar y distribuyr libremente todos las cosas que ellos toviesen en qualquier manera, salvo las que constase ser adquiridas y dadas non a la persona salvo (sic) al lugar, y esto en su vida.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173. 63

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

212

to be a temptation, but having a legitimate cause.”64 The hermits went so far as to argue that the superior could not withhold their monthly allowance even when one left his cell, thus limiting the superior’s ability to withhold the allowance as a means to force the hermit to stay in his cell.65 On the other hand, the hermits asked for a gate to guard the road leading to their cells in addition to rules that would stop pilgrims from visiting the mountain at their whim. The gate and regulations, according to the solitaries, would provide greater quietude and peace (quietud y paz) at the hermitage.66 Providing priests for the hermits posed problems since most did not seek ordination before or after ascending the mountain. They continued their dependence on the monastery and recognized the superior’s right to approve all priests administering sacraments on the mountain, as had developed in the later fourteenth century. At the same time, they preferred to select one of their own brethren to serve as priest, a right they fought to regain under Pope Gregory IX.67 Failing this, they would accept a priest from the monastery until one of the solitaries received ordination. However, this concession was a matter of necessity. Like any monk, the hermits favored one of their own to administer sacraments to avoid unjust penances assigned to them by someone from outside the community. The reformers here augmented the customs by forbidding all priests from accepting payment when administering sacraments. Sacraments were performed strictly out of religious charity, not financial gain.68

64

“...que el superior acostumbrava darle liçencia, quando el juzgava no ser tentaçion más tener legítima causa.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174. 65

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

66

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174.

67

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173-174.

68

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174.

213

Despite their determination to limit the authority of the congregation, the hermits did not include several important customs as part of the agreement. Most notably, they did not insist on the right to select prospective hermits or to provide their religious formation. Two parts of the agreement, however, suggest that both rights remained in the hands of the solitaries. First, traditionally the prior only held the final right to approve the novice hermit before entering the solitary life.69 Second, a new custom (instituted by reformers) allowed any new hermit the choice to be trained either by the monks or the eremitic community: “in the future, if other hermits should desire to profess more vows or to become monks, the house would not be restricted by these laws.”70 For the time being, the hermits still selected their novices and maintained control over their religious formation, even as they allowed future hermits to choose the monastery rather than the hermitage for their novitiate. The office of the presidente de los hermitaños instituted during the reforms of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere is conspicuously absent from the agreement. The absence is puzzling given the extensive rights that the office granted the hermits as a self-governing body separate from the monastery’s superior. The hermits, we remember, selected a president for the term of one year from a brother within the community. The president did not need to be confirmed by the superior of the monastery, but held the office simply by virtue of the election. The president also held the right to correct and punish the hermits, which until 1476 had remained solely in the hands of the prior. The office in effect created an internally elected spiritual vicar serving the 69

Barcelona, 23 February 1379. Josep María Roca, ed., “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó,” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1922): 436-437; Anselm M. Albareda, Història de Montserrat (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1931; reprint, Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1998), 196; García M. Colombás, “La santa montaña de Montserrat,” in España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos, Analecta legerensia 1 (Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970), 168 n. 10. 70

“Pero en el tiempo por venir, sy otros hermitaños quiseren obligarse a más votos, o fuesen monges, no sea estringida la casa a estar por estas leyes.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174.

214

eremitic community independent prior, even though he ultimately still held full visitation rights at the hermitage. The hermits’ exclusion of the office of president becomes more puzzling when we consider that the hermits, and not the reformers, initiated the process of confirming their customs in the face of the threats to their traditional way of life posed by the Vallisoletano reformers. Neither the agreement nor other documents explain why the hermits excluded the president of the hermits from their agreement. Their decision, I believe, likely resulted from Bernat Boyl’s abuse of the office during the reforms between 1480 and 1492. As discussed in Chapter Three, Fernando II used the office to place Boyl in a position of authority within the community while he negotiated with Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere to abandon his commendam abbacy. I also argued that Boyl’s introduction of austere reforms led several of its members to grumble about his severity, and consequently to abandon their cells. Both issues came together with the perpetual appointment of Boyl as the president of the hermits, thus violating the principal of annual election. Wishing to avoid this conflict in the future, the hermits abandoned this office in favor of the traditional customs practiced under Abbots Marc de Vilalba and Antoni Pere Ferrer. The hermits sought a complete return to their traditional independence, except for the periodic visitations conducted by the abbot or prior as the case may be. The Vallisoletano reformers, despite the obvious ambitions of the hermits, responded magnanimously to their demands by confirming and improving the traditional customs of the eremitic community. They agreed to follow the traditional vow of obedience without any alteration except for the inclusion of the prior-general when saying the vow. They also agreed to never impose additional vows on current hermits. In more practical matters, they confirmed material and financial support and the hermits’ ability to receive and distribute property as 215

custom. In fact, the reformers raised the monthly pension of eleven and one half solidos to one gold florin, while at the same time giving the hermits the right to distribute books and other items from the cell in addition to their deceased brethrens’ clothes.71 The hermits’ right to travel continued largely as before. The prior agreed to let them leave for just causes and to not withhold the monthly stipend during his journeys. The reformers only requested that that a specific amount of time be set for the return, failing this, the “house and the mountain (la casa y la montaña)” could replace him with another hermit.72 Finally, the reformers confirmed the hermits’ practice of jointly celebrating feast days in the moanstery and the construction of a gate limiting the access of pilgrims to the hermitage.73 It is hard to see the agreement as anything less than a total victory for the hermits. “It pleased them (the reformers) to do as such, and they confirmed all the above things for those who are now hermits.”74 In some cases, the reformers made changes benefiting the hermits, in others they only offered minimal revisions that did not threaten their traditions. Thus, the hermits not only preserved their customs, but also removed the office of the presidente de los hermitaños from their community. This office, which had originally been instituted to grant greater liberty in the governance of their own religious community in 1476, had come to an end at their own discretion on account of the abuse by one of its own members in the name of reform. 71

“Y no solamente los vestidos pero los libros y las otras cosas de la celda que querían que el prior desta casa lo diere al que subçediere en la çelda o a otro que las aya más menester.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174. 72

“Que en tal caso le sea asygnado y limitado tiempo cierto, y sy no viniere, que no sea obligada la casa y la montaña de le esperar más de aquel tiempo de la liçencia, y que puedan proveer de ay adelante en la montaña de otra persona.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 174. 73

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 175.

74

“A lo qual todo dixeron sus reverencias que les plazía de lo ensy fazer, y confirmavan todas las cosas suso dichas a los hermitaños que agora son.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 175.

216

As with most negotiations, the hermits needed to give a little to have their customs confirmed by the congregation. Here, the community took a fateful step and agreed that the monastery’s superior no longer needed to follow the agreement if any future hermit chose to become a monk, to profess more vows, and live under different customs: “But in the future, if other hermits should desire to profess more vows or to become monks, the house would not be restricted by these laws.”75 The Vallisoletano reformers revealed in this one condition their intention to enact a new set of constitutions to govern the hermits. They would replace older recluses who refused to accept any changes to their constitutions with new hermits trained in the monastery as coenobitic monks before beginning the eremitic life. Ironically, the hermits’ one concession prepared the way for the end of the traditional semi-independent lay community living on the mountain of Montserrat.76 It is striking that the Vallisoletano reformers agreed so magnanimously to the hermits’ demands given the authority granted to them by the papacy and the king in addition to their staunch views of centralized authority, strict enclosure, and uniformity of customs. Two reasons can account for this inconsistency. First, the reformers simply followed the advice given to them by Fernando II, who in April and June ordered García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela to act with moderation, listen to the community, and avoid radical changes that would disrupt peace on the mountain. The hermits originally formed an essential part of this policy, as Fernando II ordered the two reformers to follow the advice of Juan de Enguidanos. Second, the reformers never governed a monastery that included a group of hermits constitutionally affiliated with a monastic community. They simply lacked the knowledge and experience to change the 75

“Pero en el tiempo por venir, sy otros hermitaños quisieren obligarse a más votos, o fuesen monges, no sea estringida la casa a estar por estas leyes.” La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 175. 76

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 170.

217

eremitic customs upon their arrival. Preserving the traditions allowed them to maintain peace and forestall any exodus upon their arrival. The Capitulatión provided the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid with the time needed to formulate a coherent reform that reflected their constitutions and ceremonials. Prior-General Juan de San Juan de Luz and the new Prior Garcia Jiménez de Cisneros, the two ardent centralists of the 1489 reform of the congregation, would not overlook the underlining Vallisoletano principal that all members of the congregation (including the hermits) must follow uniform customs under the direct authority of the local prior, and through him the prior-general of the congregation.

The acceptance of two possible customs governing the

hermits at the same time was simply impossible according to this ideal.

The temporary

agreement was just that; a temporary means to prepare for the total reorganization of the eremitic community according to their understanding of the true Observance of the Rule.

Departures and Professions as a Response to Reform The documents recording the departures and professions of the hermits from Montserrat between 1484 and 1494 provide our best evidence to see how the hermits progressively abandoned their initial support of the Congregation de Valladolid when it increasingly became clear that they would abandon the hermits’ traditions in favor of a wholesale reform of the community (Appendix 5). These documents, a mix of witness lists, letters, and profession records, indicate that several of the pre-reform hermits abandoned Montserrat within six months after signing the Capitulatión in July 1493 and the approval of the Constitutiones haeremitarum in February 1494. The records also show how the Congregation de Valladolid attempted to fill the abandoned cells with solitaries willing to adopt their reforms during this period. In both 218

cases, however, both older and newer hermits did not immediately understand all the changes being proposed by the congregation. Far from creating increased stability at the hermitage, the reform efforts of the Congregation of Valladolid brought about a year-long crisis on the mountain. Documents prior to 1484 only record the names of a few hermits here and there. Our first complete list appears in the confirmation of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat on 25 May 1484.77 Twelve hermits - the constitutional allotment allowed at Montserrat - witnessed the document. These included Bernat Boyl, Antoni Dalmacii, Joan Serra, Bartolomé Borcis, Joan Ramires, Joan Gujo, Joan Arnedo, Gaspar Mirambells, Pere Coll, Mateo Batlia (Bayha), Benet Roys, and Antoni Figuera. Except for Boyl, none of these hermits appeared in any document prior to 1480. The period between 1490 and 1493 saw several changes within the community. We know that the hermits more or less retained the allotted number of twelve solitaries, since the 1490 visitation conducted by the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza recorded eleven hermits at Montserrat and in addition to Antoni Dalamacii, who died prior to their arrival.78 Other departures were less melancholic. Bernat Boyl left the hermitage to join the Order of Friars Minim between 1490 and 1491.79 Mateo Bayha appeared in a document in May 1493, when the current vicar of Montserrat sent the hermit to Barcelona in order to direct the newly founded Minim’s friary of San Cebrìa d’Horta in Barcelona on account of Boyl’s departure to the West 77

Confirmation of the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat. Montserrat, 25 May 1484. Ribas i Calaf, Annals de Montserrat, 310; Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #23, 57. 78

Visitation report of the Congregation of Tarragona i Zaragoza. Montserrat, 7 April 1490. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #48, 76. 79

Josep M. Prunés, “Bernard Boil: Datos interrogantes y documentos olvidados,” Bollettino ufficiale dell’ordine dei Minimi 47/1 (2001): 113-115.

219

Indies with Cristóbal Colón.80 The absence of Bayha from later records at the hermitage suggests that he remained in Barcelona, perhaps joining the Order of Minims. Five new hermits professed at Montserrat between May 1484 and the signing of the agreement in July 1493. Juan de Enguidanos first appeared in June 1493 when he aided García Jiménez de Cisneros and Joan de Tudela in their initial reforms.81 Three new hermits appeared for the first time in the Capitulatión, Fray Salvador, Diego Godino, and Benet Martínez, though we do not know when they took their vows.82 Another hermit named Joan Molla perhaps professed during Joan de Peralta’s abbacy. Molla’s life as a hermit poses several problems. Molla, according to La història inédita de Montserrat, died on 14 November 1516 after living “forty years” as a recluse.83 Although the date of death is likely correct, it is impossible that he lived forty years as a hermit since he did not appear witness the confirmation of the confraternity in 1484. Reading fourteen for forty does not solve the problem as Molla first appeared as a solitary on 24 December 1493, when he professed as a hermit along with eight others.84 We cannot presume that this was Molla’s first profession. Recluses that lived at Montserrat prior to the Vallisoletano reform took additional vows as a response to the new constitutions. The Història inédita should therefore be read as a general statement of long-term residence, thus placing Molla within the group of hermits living at Montserrat prior to the reform. 80

Fernando II to the Community of Montserrat. Barcelona, 7 June 1493. Fausto Curiel, “Bernardo Boil, único nuevo documento inédito y decisivo,” Revista montserratensia 7 (1914): 150-151. 81

Fernando II and Isabel I to García Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan de Tudela. Barcelona, 7 June 1493. Albareda, “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta,” #65, 87. 82

La capitulatión del prior y monges, 1: 173.

83

Anselm M. Albareda, “Una història inèdita de Montserrat,” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1921): 114.

84

Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441.

220

The Capitulatión of 1493 provides our second lengthy list of hermits. The document names seven solitaries in addition to an undetermined number of unidentified hermits who did not witness the agreement.85 We can only positively identify five of the seven recluses who were listed: Joan Serra, Juan de Enguidanos, Fray Salvador, Diego Godino, and Benet Martínez. Two other hermits in the document only use their first names: Fray Bartolomé and Fray Joan. It is possible, but by no means certain, that Fray Bartolomé was the hermit Bartolomé Borcis who witnessed the 1484 confirmation of the confraternity.

Fray Joan is far more problematic.

Whether Fray Joan was Joan Serra, Joan Ramires, Joan Gujo, Joan Arnedo, Joan Molla or another Joan cannot be determined. It is likely, but again by no means certain, that we should identify Fray Joan as Joan Serra or Joan Molla as they both appeared in later documents.86 This list of hermits reveals a fluctuating community of anywhere between seven and twelve hermits between 1484 and 1493. Of those that signed the confirmation in 1484, only Joan Serra continued to live at Montserrat after 1493. Fray Bartolomé Borcis likely remained at Montserrat with Serra, though admittedly the agreement only records Borcis’s first name. We know that Bernat Boyl left the hermitage on account of his conversion to the Friars Minim and that Antoni Dalmacii died prior to the visitation in 1490. Mateo Bahya surfaced in May 1493, but does not appear in any subsequent records. The four, and likely five, new professions that took place prior to July 1493 demonstrate that at least four other recluses had died or left the

85

Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441.

86

For Joan Serra and Joan Molla, see Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441; Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 462; “Constituciones de los monjes hermitaños de la montaña de Montserrat,” in García Jiménez de Cisneros, García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, edited by Cipriano Baraut, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 2: 481 (hereafter cited as Constituciones de los monjes hermitaños).

221

mountain if the community maintained the full body of twelve hermits as stipulated in their customs. Profession records from July 1493 to February 1494 provide further evidence for the increasing instability at the hermitage as a result of the Vallisoletano reform. The first professions took place shortly after the signing of the Capitulatión. On 24 July 1493, three new hermits professed at Montserrat: Onofre Arcos, Pedro Marcos, and Juan de Vizcaya.87 If we place their names alongside those that appear in the agreement, we can identify ten of twelve hermits living at Montserrat in July 1493: Fray Salvador, Joan Serra, Joan Molla, Juan de Enguidanos, Onofre Arcos, Pedro Marcos, Juan de Vizcaya, Diego Godino, Benet Martínez, and Fray Bartolomé. If we assume that twelve hermits lived at Montserrat when the agreement was signed, then at least three recluses immediately refused to accept the authority of the Congregation of Valladolid or that the positions were vacant prior to the reform. In the least, the professions show how much the reformers prioritized the replacement of hermits to address the problems of instability being caused by the reforms. Several professions on December 24 demonstrate the revolving door of the hermitage. Six previously unknown hermits professed to the prior: Benito de Aragón, Miguel de Navarra, Miquel Ferrer de Valencia, Pierre Gascon, Antoine de France, and Fray Pasqual. 88 In addition to these professions, the venerable hermit Joan Serra added to his original vows according to the conditions outlined in the Capitulatión. Joan Molla appeared alongside Serra in the document, suggesting that he followed Serra’s decision to submit to the new authority of the prior. In addition to these eight hermits, four others resided at Montserrat in December if we look ahead 87

Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441.

88

Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441.

222

to documents from early 1494. Onofre Arcos, Pedro Marcos, and Fray Salvador approved the Constitutiones haeremitarum in February, and Juan de Enguidanos took additional vows in July following the example of Serra and Molla.89 The documents from late 1493 and early 1494 provide the names of the twelve hermits of Montserrat for the first time since 1484. These included Fray Salvador, Joan Serra, Joan Molla, Juan de Enguidanos, Onofre Arcos, Pedro Marcos, Benito de Aragón, Miguel de Navarra, Miquel Ferrer de Valencia, Pierre Gascon, Antoine du France, and Fray Pasqual.90 These lists show the dramatic changeover within the small community during the first six months of reform. At least four of the six hermits that resided at Montserrat in December 1493 were new members of the community. These four hermits replaced Fray Bartolomé, Diego Godino, Benet Martínez, and Juan de Vizcaya.91 Two of these hermits could have simply taken additional vows as in the case of Serra and Molla, but it is more likely that they were new members who abandoned the hermitage rather than accept the new constitutions. To complicate matters, Miquel Ferrer de Valencia, Pierre Gascon, and Antoine du France did not witness the Constitutiones haeremitarum approved on 14 February 1494.92

Instead, two new hermits,

Martínez Pérez and João Lourenço de Portugal, approved the constitutions in their place. These two new professions must therefore have occurred sometime between the end of December 1493

89

Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441; Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 2, 462.

90

We know that Enguidanos continued to reside at Montserrat, since he appeared in the profession list from 24 July 1494. Soler, “Extinción de los ermitaños,” 441. 91

Juan de Vizcaya also took the habit as a monk in 1493, and thus may have simply returned to the monastery. Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, “Monjes profesos de Montserrat (1493-1833),” Studia monastica 33/2 (1971): 333. 92

Miquel Ferrer, Pierre Gascon, or Antoine du France did not appear in the confirmation list of the 1499 constitutions. Constituciones de los monjes ermitaños, 2: 481.

223

and the end of February 1494.93 The absence of Gascon, Ferrer and Antione de France does not seem accidental. They, like Godino, Martínez, de Vizcaya, and Fray Bartolomé, abandoned the hermitage rather than accept the new constitutions. There was good reason for them to worry about the forthcoming changes. Juan de San Juan de la Luz and García Jiménez de Cisneros had already legislated the strict enclosure of the hermitage. The Constitución del encerramiento que los monges deste monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Montserrate han de guardar of 18 October 1493 brought the hermits within the enclosure of the monastery’s grounds.94 By February 1494, we can identify eleven hermits who lived on the mountain when the new constitutions were introduced: Fray Salvador, Joan Serra, Joan Molla, Joan de Enguidanos, Onofre Arcos, Pedro Marcos, Benito de Aragón, Miguel de Navarra, and Pasqual, Martínez Pérez and João Lourenço de Portugal. Of these, only four pre-reform hermits remained: Fray Salvador, Joan Serra, Juan de Enguidanos, and Joan Molla. Three of them (and I believe all of them, though Fray Salvador does not appear in the list of professions) made additional vows to Prior García Jiménez de Cisneros before or soon after the introduction of the Consuetudines haeremitarum.

Thus, 75% of the hermits had been replaced within six months of the

congregation’s arrival at Montserrat, eight of which were likely not of Catalan, but of Castilian origin according to their surnames. Those who remained, however, professed or would shortly profess as Benedictine monks.

93

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 2, 462.

94

“Constitución del encerramiento que los monges deste monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Montserrate han de guardar” in García Jiménez de Cisneros, García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, edited by Cipriano Baraut, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 2: Appendix 1, #17, 888; Colombás, Un reformador, 95; Anselm M. Albareda, “L’arxiu antic de Montserrat (intent de recontrucció),” Analecta montserratensia 3 (1919): 161-162.

224

The congregation’s initial approval of the Capitulatión in July led the majority of the hermits to initially accept the reform and offer the new prior and prior-general customary obedience. These hermits, however, began to depart the mountain once it became clear that the congregation intended to completely reform the community according to their view of the eremitic life. Overriding the agreement ultimately led the majority of the hermits to abandon the mountain, including hermits that had only recently joined before the new regulations were enacted. Their departures were not one dramatic event, but a slow process made by individuals as they increasingly became aware of the nature of the reforms. Rather than offering a new period of peace, these initial reforms set off a period of instability in the mountain hermitage.

Aristotle’s Politics and the Constitutiones haeremitarum montiserrati Historians of Montserrat have judged García Jiménez de Cisneros’ Constitutiones haeremitarum montiserrati as an example of moderation owing to his interest in maintaining some of the hermits’ traditions while at the same time making them professed monks within the Congregation of Valladolid. This, as the prior later argued, was a matter of spiritual necessity, “since not without moderation, according to Gerson in his Mountain of Contemplation, can we pass from the imperfect to the perfect, nor can one suddenly be very high up [on the mountain], and perfect in virtues.”95 Moderation, however, remained within the eyes of the reformers as happily professed monks and not, as we have seen, within the perspective of the hermits, who increasingly saw their customs slowly brought to an abrupt end despite the reformers’ guarantee 95

“Ca no sin medio, según dize el Gersón en su Monte de Contemplación, de lo inperfecto a lo perfecto podemos passar, ni súbitamente alguno puede ser muy alto y en las virtudes perfectos.” García Jiménez de Cisneros, “Exercitatorio de la vida espiritual,” García Jiménez de Cisneros, García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, edited by Cipriano Baraut, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), prologue, 31-35 (hereafter Exercitatorio).

225

to respect their traditions. Far from accepting their customs in moderation, Jiménez de Cisneros accused the hermits of violating the principals of monastic community according to a Christianized-Aristotelian view of the state of nature and society. Jiménez de Cisneros’s developed much of his argument from Aristotle’s Politics and Nicomachean Ethics rather than traditional monastic sources. In particular, the new prior based his views on the Aristotelian ideas of nature and society. According to Aristotle, society exists as a natural thing and humans have an impulse to live in society, since they are by nature social animals.96 Society also has a goal towards which it moves, in this case towards the good; society exists in nature so that humans can pursue the good life.97 This pursuit, however, is not simply for the good life, but for the best life, since, according to Aristotle’s view of nature, the natural is best and the best natural. Humans are therefore at their best when they live in a society that promotes their freedom to seek the highest good.98 Society, as a measure of the common good, allows humans to reach their full development by freeing its members from having to constantly struggle for survival.99 But to live in society without disorder and to cultivate the moral potential needed to realize the highest good, one needs a government that organizes society and administers law.100 Law or constitutions therefore are necessary for humans to fulfill their natural impulse to pursue the best within the best society. For a society to exist in its natural

96

Aristotle, Politics, edited by Stephen Everson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 1252bI

a

and 1253 I. 97

Aristotle, Politics, 1252aI and 1253aI.

98

R. G. Mulgan, Aristotle’s Political Theory: An Introduction for Students of Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 23-25. 99

Aristotle, Politics, 1261bI and 1328bI

100

Aristotle, Politics, 1253aI;

226

condition, therefore, it must have just constitutions.101 The one who first established society caused the greatest good - the prime benefactor - deserved special credit for this action.102 Society and law are thus valued as natural, fundamentally good, and essential for the proper development of human nature. In Aristotle’s political world, those who do not join society consequently deny their nature as human beings. Humans, when choosing to live as individuals, refuse to live according to the natural social order as derived from the best or highest principal. This condition is unnatural.

By living outside society, humanity becomed deviant, violent, and immoral.

Accordingly, Aristotle argues that humanity is at his worst when divorced from society, law, and justice. Humans even become worse than beasts because in this case the individual denies his or her very nature where the beast does not.103 The failure to realize this natural order inevitably leads the individual or unorganized small social group into conflict with others. Dissimilarity between individuals and groups based on the rejection of a common law becomes a principal cause of aggressive, violent social disorder.104 Aristotle’s importance to Jiménez de Cisneros emerged in the first paragraph of the hermits’ constitution when he quotes the opening lines of the Politics. “Although every society was established with the view of some good, we consider society to have been created for the sake of the highest good.”105 As a monk, however, Jiménez de Cisneros defined the highest

101

Aristotle, Politics, 1282bI and 1287bI.

102

Mulgan, Aristotle’s Political Theory, 24-25.

103

Aristotle, Politics, 1253aI.

104

Mulgan, Aristotle’s Political Theory, 123.

105

“Tametsi omnis societas alicuius boni gratia est constituta, principalissimi tamen boni causa eam societatem initam arbitramur.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 418.

227

good in a decidedly Christian rather than abstract way using metaphysics. The highest good was the pursuit of “a holy religious life and the worship of immortal God.”106 Following Aristotle, nothing can be greater and more perfect than the first principal. Jiménez de Cisneros (echoing Augustine) interpreted this abstract, rationale principal as God and his only begotten son, Christ.107

Christian society, in this case a monastery, cultivated the relationship between God

the benefactor and society to achieve “the greatest peace and tranquility of our souls” as the proper end of individuals following their natural impulse to seek the highest good. When one finds oneself at rest in solitude cultivated by a community, then one can engage in prayer undistracted by the ebbs and flows of the ever-changing world.108 Jiménez de Cisneros supported his argument by examining the first Christian communities in the Bible. Christ, he noted, called the apostles together, and when gathered, gave them their first law, saying “peace unto you.” This, however, was secondary to the most excellent peace of the Incarnation, when God sent an angel to announce the coming of Christ to establish peace on Earth.109 Here, the principals of Aristotle’s natural, good society merged with a Christian, monastic view of community based on the ecclesiological implications of the Incarnation. For monks, this meant living according to established rules and dedicating one’s life to the perfection of virtues needed to fulfill the proper worship of God. Monks, like the apostles, lived according to the rule of peace instituted for the common good for the glory of 106

“Que ad sanctam religionem et Dei immortalis cultum, cum summa quidem pacem atque animorum tranquillitate, fuerit instituta.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 418. 107

Augustine of Hippo, De Trinitate, edited by J. P. Migne, Patrologia cursus completus. Series Latina 42 (Paris: J.P. Migne, 1841), 1.9.18, 4.8.11, and 15.26.47. 108

Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God. A Study of Monastic Culture, translated by Catharine Misrahi (New York: Fordham University Press, 1961; reprint, 1996), 27-28. 109

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 418.

228

God, who through the only begotten son Christ, established monasteries as the perfect Christian community. There was a decidedly spiritual theme behind this argument. If one wanted to live in true peace among the saints one had to flee the world to the interiority of the soul were one dwells with the First Principal through prayer and contemplation.110 The hermits, on the other hand, willfully rejected pursuing this common good. Instead, they lived separate from the monks according to their ancient customs (pristino mores) rather than under the common law (lex), rule (regula) and constitutions (consuetudines) of the Congregation of Valladolid. Their refusal disrupted the tranquility and peace of the community, leaving them unable to worship God.111 Worse yet, the hermits’ customs included justifications for unnatural, anti-social behavior by allowing them to renounce their vows, leave the community, and reject the bonds of charity and prayer.112 Worst of all, a hermit who renounced his vows returned to the disordered and dangerous world, where the lack of a regulated religious life threatened the peace of their souls.113 Self-governance, as a result of individual conceit, in the end led to social disunity, preventing society from achieving the highest good as Aristotle warned. The hermits, in this sense, denied the natural desire of Christians to form a community, rejected the divine and natural law and reentered the dangerous world governed by animalistic, anti-social urges. There was nothing but danger outside of the monastic life organized by the

110

Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 1: c. 2.6-11 and bk 4: c. 39.5-6.

111

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 418.

112

Victor-Manuel Márquez Pailos, “Autoridad y comunidad en la Congregación de Valladolid,” in Silos: un milenio. Actas del congreso internacional sobre la Abadía de Santo Domingo de Silos. January, 2001, 4 vols. (Burgos: Universidad de Burgos, 2003), 1:183. 113

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 418-419.

229

Rule.114 These hermits “separated by law are worse than the rest of all animals,” which in the Christian cosmological order meant living in the realm of demons.115 This unique, perhaps unprecedented criticism of an eremitic community cannot fully be appreciated without recognizing that Jiménez de Cisneros never explicitly used the most obvious, traditional source for attacking his characterization of the hermits: Saint Benedict’s classification of the four types of monks. Benedict divided these four types into two groups. The first group (the good monks) consisted of cenobites and anchorites. Cenobites lived in a monastery under a rule and an abbot. Anchorites, or hermits, trained as cenobites for several years and only then did they go “forth from the rank of their brethren well trained for single combat in the desert.”116 The third and fourth monks (the bad monks) went by the names of Sarabaites and Gyrovagues. The Gyrovagues (the fourth type) traveled here and there gobbling up the food of other monasteries and living as hedonists according to their passions.117 The Sarabaites (the third type) resembled Jiménez de Cisneros’ description of the hermits. Sarabaites did not live as professed, tonsured monks in an enclosed monastery. Rather, they lived in small groups or alone without a rule or abbot. Unsupervised and unregulated, their desires became a “law unto them; because what they choose to do they call holy, but what they dislike they hold to be unlawful.”118

114

Márquez Pailos, “Autoridad y comunidad,” 1: 180.

115

“Homines enim separati ab lege cunctorum pessima sunt animalium.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 420; Aristotle, Politics, 1253aI. 116

RB1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes, edited by Timothy Fry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1981), 1: 1-5 (hereafter cited as RB). 117

RB 1: 10-11.

118

“Tertium vero monachorum taeterrimum genus est sarabaitarum, qui nulla regula approbati, experientia magistra, sicut aurum fornacis, sed in plumbi natura molliti, adhuc operibus servantes saeculo fidem, mentiri Deo per tonsuram noscuntur. Qui bini aut terni aut certe singuli sine pastore, non dominicis sed suis inclusi ovilibus, pro

230

Jiménez de Cisneros’ criticism had implicit parallels between the hermits and Sarabaites. Indeed, criticizing the hermits as Sarabaites was not unheard of at Montserrat after the reform. The early sixteenth-century Liber reformationis condemned the hermits as Sarabaites, rewriting Chapter One of the Rule as a virulent attack particular to their pre-reformed life on the mountain.119 In spite of this, the prior never mentioned the Sarabaites by name and he never accused the hermits of living without an abbot. This the hermits had, as he and the congregation well knew. To accuse them of being Sarabaites would simply distort the situation at Montserrat and call into question their justification for abandoning the Capitulatión. The prior therefore looked to political and social theory to justify his actions rather than explicity using the Rule. The effect was far more damning. A Christianized-Aristotelian argument about the nature of society not only placed the hermits outside of the social order of a religious community, but also supported the Congregation of Valladolid’s insistence that one needed live according to one rule and one constitution under a single congregation to achieve the highest good so ardently defended by Jiménez de Cisneros and the other centralists during the congregation’s conflicts in the late 1480s and early 1490s.120 The hermits certainly resembled the Sarabaites, but the charges here smacked more of schism than Sarabaitism. This explains why the prior placed so much emphasis on the juxtaposition between the hermits’ customs (mores) that divided the religious community as opposed to the legitimate laws, rules and constitutions of the Congregation of Valladolid.

lege eis est desideriorum voluntas, cum quicquid putaverint vel elegerint, hoc dicunt sanctum, et quod noluerint, hoc putant non licere.” RB 1: 6-9. 119

Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, “Els abats montserratins del Segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati,” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 164. 120

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 172.

231

The hermits’ anti-social behavior led Jiménez de Cisneros to turn to a Christianized Aristotelian doctrine of necessity with regard to reestablishing a good society by imposing legislation without choice. Necessity required him to dispense with their traditions to preserve the good.121 Such changes reflected the Aristotle’s belief that a leader needed to impose and/or reimpose society and law on each generation to restrict humanity’s natural impulse towards immorality and individualism.122 When the common good was broken, one by necessity can change and impose a new set of laws. The preservation of old customs, in this sense, violated God’s intention to live peacefully in community.

As Gratian pointed out, “Divine law is

established by nature, human laws are established by practices (moribus).”123

When such

customs subvert divine law, they must, according to Isidore of Seville “yield to authority: evil customs should be eradicated by law and reason.”124 Augustine among others believed worldly law could be modified provided that it upheld divine justice, and that divine law could be imposed on those preferring to follow their own customs outside of the church.125 Jiménez de Cisneros provided an unusual criticism of the hermits by adapting arguments usually applied to

121

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 461.

122

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 462; Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, translated and edited by Roger Crisp (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), Bk. 5, c. 7, 1134b-1135a and c. 11, 1138a. Jiménez de Cisneros seems to be drawing on Aquinas’s use of Aristotle’s Politics and Ethics in his Summa theologica. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, 3rd ed., 5vols., Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (Madrid: La Editorial Católica, 19521955), I:II Q. 96 A. 6 and I:II Q. 97 A. 1-4. 123

Quoted from Jean Porter, “Custom, Ordinance and Natural Right in Gratian’s Decretum,” in The Nature of Customary Law, edited by Amanda Perreau-Saussine and James Bernard Murphy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 89. 124

“Multa contra pudicos mores illicite usurpata; adime consuetudinem, serva legem; usus auctoritati cedat, pravum usum lex et ratio vincat.” Isidore of Seville, Synonyma, edited by J.P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina, 83 (Paris: J.P. Migne, 1850), 2: 80, col. 863B. 125

John Von Heyking, Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2001), 241; John Cavadini and Allan D. Fitzgerald, eds., Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1999), 583.

232

schismatics Montserrat. His criticism, however, had particular resonance among Benedictines by framing the debate in the language of custom and rule of law. As the medieval title of Chapter One of the Rule stated, “It is called a rule because it directs the habits/customs of those who obey it.”126 The forced imposition of his new constitution created peace and fostered the pursuit of the highest good in community.127 Force alone went against the creation of the natural community for Jiménez de Cisneros. Consensus had to be obtained in order to preserve peace both internally in the monk and externally in the monastery. Here, the new prior adopted a complex language and discourse of consensus that evinced the Chrisitian humanism developed among Benedictine communities in the fifteenth century. His use of “consent” as a theory largely developed from his reading of Aristotle.

According to the Greek philosopher, consent and reason were necessary when

establishing a just society and law.128 Consent became doubly important given society’s goal to foster the common good and encourage others to do so.129 Jiménez de Cisneros indeed claims that his admonishments to do the good led to the hermits’ to petition for new constitutions in order to live in concord with the monks. By his own pastoral admonismments, if we accept his account, the prior created the climate for the acceptance of the new constitutional order.130 Traditional monastic theology, as much as Aristotle’s political theory, guided Jiménez de Cisneros’ discourse on community. All abbots knew that consent was the basis of obedience, 126

“Regula appellatur ab hoc quod oboedientum dirigat mores.” RB, 1.

127

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 460. Based on Aristotle, Politics, 1253aI; Mulgan, Aristotle’s Political Theory, 79; Aquinas, Summa theologica, I:II Q. 95 A. 1. 128

Aristotle, Politics, bk. 3, 1285aI.

129

Aquinas, following Aristotle, acknowledged the importance consent, arguing that no individual could create law without the consent of the community and remain just. Aquinas, Summa theologica, I:I Q 97. A 3. 130

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 460.

233

and no monastery could function without likeminded monks agreeing to live under one rule and abbot. As Bernard of Clairvaux argued, only those monks who consented to live according to the Rule would progress in the Christian life as members in a monastic community.131 For Jiménez de Cisneros, if the hermits observed their religious way of life “they would be heirs to the kingdom of heaven and residents of its tabernacle in perpetuity.”132 Common counsel (comuni consilio et assensu) and consent brought the hermits to witness and approve the new constituition. In the future, consent of the hermits and the prior (de comuni consensu prioris et omnium heremitarum) was needed to change the statutes, except in the case of necessity.133 Whether taken from Aristotle or monastic tradition, the goal remained the same. Creating a community inclusive of the hermits required unanimous (unanimiter) agreement on a common constitution as an indispensble part of living “the most excellent peace” as ordained by God for the Christian monk.

The Constitutiones haeremitarum Montisserrati of 1494 The Congregation de Valladolid understood the difficulties they faced in reforming a distant and culturally distinct religious community. Being the first community they reformed outside of the Kingdom of Castilla y León, they lacked any knowledge of the Catalan language and culture and the unique religious life at Montserrat. Furthermore, the congregation had no experience governing a semi-independent group of hermits associated with a coenobitic

131

Gillian Evans, Bernard of Clairvaux (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 33.

132

“Si nostra religione observaverimus erimus utique, ipsa veritate infalibili decere, heredes regni celorum et sui tabernaculi perpetuo habitatores.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 461; RB, prologue. 133

Constitutiones haeremitarum, prologue, 462.

234

monastery. This lack of knowledge of local customs and the diverse community at Montserrat confronted the reformers non-negotiable policy for uniformity within the congregation based on a universal adherence to the Constitutions of San Benito de Valladolid. Changing the hermits’ customs to follow their Observantine understanding of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the adherence to the congregation’s constitutions far outweighed the desire to retain the local customs. Forcing the hermits to become monks was the simplest way to resolve this dilemma. The Rule provided all the justification the new prior needed to change the hermits into monk-hermits (monjes hermitaños).

Following Chapter One of the Rule on the types of

monks, Jiménez de Cisneros now required all future hermits be trained in the monastery prior to ascending the mountain, since only by a long period of training in the monastery could one venture forth to confront the demons in the desert. This training, according to the constitutions, occurred under the novice master and included the memorization of the Rule, ceremonials, and customs of the monastery. Education was based on a set, uniform curriculum of religious instruction that concentrated on mental prayer and the recitation of the Divine Office according to the congregation’s ceremonials.

Once the hermit completed his monastic novitiate, the

chapter voted as to whether or not they should accept him as a monk in the community. Only after several years in the community, “as our father Saint Benedict required in the first chapter of the Rule,” would the monk be able to enter the hermit at the prior’s discretion.134 This was a

134

“Et diuturna conversacione prior eos tales judicaverit quales beatus Benedictus pater noster in primo capitulo sue Regule fore requirit.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 1, 463; Dalmau conjectured that this would be at least ten or twelve years. Bernabé Dalmau, “Les relations entre les moine set les ermites de Montserrat de 1300 à 1500,” Studia monastica 14/1 (1972): 140-141.

235

tremendous responsibility for the prior. According to a contemporary poem penned at Montserrat, “Scarcely can one persevere in a cell that is not predestined for heaven.”135 The prior, according to the Rule and the customs set by the end of the fourteenth century at Montserrat, alone approved a new hermit when one died and needed replacement on the mountain. However, no hermits could now come from outside the community. Only one of the monks in the monastery, rather than a candidate living and training at the hermitage, could begin living in one of the vacant cells.136 The new constitutions gave even greater power to the prior, who did not even have to replace one hermit with another. He had the right to place a monk in the hermitage until he found a suitable person to take his place on the mountain.137 The process of becoming a hermit included a new formula of profession. The new forumula changed the traditional simple vows of the hermit to formal solemn vows similar to those professed by monks in the monastery. I brother such and such, of such and such place, promise my stability, and conversion of my ways, on the mountain of Santa Maria de Montserrat of the Order of Saint Benedict, and obedience and poverty and chastity before God and his saints. In the presence of the reverend father “N”, of such and such place, prior of the same monastery, having been given this position by the reverend father of San Benito de Valladolid.138

This new formula removed the lay status of the hermits and fully incorporated them into the monastic community under the Congregation of Valladolid by adding the vow of stability. He 135

“Vix aut numquam potest perseverare in çella/Qui non est predestinatus ad çelum.” “De laudibus çelle,” in Obras completas, 2: #19, 889. 136

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 18, 473.

137

He was only restricted in so far as he had to replace the hermit within three months. Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 18, 473. 138

“Ego frater talis, de tali loco, promitto stabilitatem meam et conversionem morum meorum in montaneis istius monasteriii beate Marie de Monteserrato, ordinis sancti Benedicti, et obedientiam et paupertatem et castitatem coram Deo et sanctis eius, secundum Regulam eiusdem sancti. In presentia reverendi patris fratris N., de talki loco, prioris eiusdem monasterii, locum tenentis reverendi patris prioris Sancti Benedicti Vallis oleti.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 1, 463.

236

was now required to permanently reside on the mountain with no possibility of abandoning his vows.

Stability became part of the formula, completely placing the hermit within the prior’s

jurisdiction just like the monks in the monastery.139 Later in the constitution, for example, Jiménez de Cisneros gave the prior the right to transfer hermits from one cell to another at his own discretion, though he could not force them off the mountain.140 Interestingly, he did not require the hermits to accept full enclosure. This was a practical concession, as it allowed the solitaries to receive pilgrims according to tradition.141 Even so, the prior had already greatly restricted the rules governing their movement in the 1493 Constitución del encerramiento, which, as we have seen, required the hermits to live within the monastic enclosure. Jiménez de Cisneros used the hermits’ new status as “monk-hermits” to expand his rights over their spiritual discipline. The prior continued to hold the basic right to visit, correct, and punish the community at his discretion. However, he now required each hermit to descend every fifteen days to the monastery (or whenever the prior wished) to confess and receive penance before the prior or a designated monk from the monastery.142 Additionally, the prior-general and his visitators acquired these same rights when they performed a visitation according to the congregation’s constitutions.143 Even a strictly regulated chapter of faults was held at the hermitage every Sunday under the direction of his vicar.144 The hermits, for their part, had to

139

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 3, 464.

140

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 3, 464.

141

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 1, 463 and c. 15, 471.

142

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 8, 467.

143

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 3, 464.

144

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 8, 467 and c. 6, 466.

237

accept his visitation just as if they were monks.145 As a measure of moderation, the prior did not classify violations of the constitutions or the Rule of Saint Benedict as a mortal sin.146 To complete the prior’s triumph over discipline at the hermitage, the hermits lost the right to appeal and continued to have no vote in the election of the prior, though hermits who previously took vows of perpetual enclosure in the congregation could participate in future elections.147 Rules requiring confession every eight days reinforced the penitential atmosphere. Each hermit could choose a private confessor with the prior’s approval, with confession being mandatory for each hermit to receive communion on Sunday, whether at the monastery or on the mountain.148 To regulate the religious life, Jiménez de Cisneros’ devised a monastic horarium and set of daily prayers for the lay brothers based on the to the ceremonials and horarium of the Congregation of Valladolid.149 This, if we follow Albareda, replaced a missal used solely by the hermits by the early fifteenth century.150 On a more basic level, the constitution required the hermits to wear the same habits as the monks after their profession, though they were allowed to continue wearing their traditional hood that distinguished them from the other monks.151 Priest-hermits had new responsibilities and restrictions given their ability to perform the sacraments. The prior could require them to say masses and prayers when he commanded, and 145

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 3, 464.

146

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 19, 474.

147

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 19, 474.

148

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 6, 466; Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 193.

149

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 9, 469; Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 196.

150

Albareda, “L’Arxiu Antic de Montserrat,” #17, 195-196.

151

We can see this even among the clothing worn by the hermit-priests. “Habitus et calciamenta ipsorum heremitarum sint eiusdem forme, qua utuntur in monasterio monachi…Presbiteri tamen, aut ad hoc destinati, radant coronam ad modum monachorum, et barbam non nutriant.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 2, 464; Dalmau, “Les relations,” 140.

238

all alms they earned when performing the sacaments went directly to the monastery.152 Each one had to perform the Divine Office according to the congregations’ ceremonials and customs, though they could also use the Roman rite provided that they were done with the breviary of the order.153 Furthermore, although Jiménez de Cisneros continued recognized the importance of having one or two members become priests, he would not allow them to become officials in the hermitage. Aware of priestly pride, the prior reserved the right to appoint more than two hermitpriests, selecting a monk, or appointing none at all.154 The abbreviation and rewriting of several chapters of the Rule in the constitutions further brought the hermits into the fold of the Observantine Benedictine life of the Vallisoletano reformers. For example, rules governing eating, sleeping and silence in the hermits’ constitution summarized the chapters found in the Rule. Modifications to the Rule were made on account of pilgrims, who were allowed to visit, eat and engage in pious conversation.155 Jiménez de Cisneros included the Rule’s strict regulations regarding letters and personal property. The hermits were no longer able to receive letters directly. When letters arrived, the prior decided whether or not they should be delivered. The hermits, however, were allowed to receive basic gifts without his permission.156

The reception of money was strictly prohibited and all

possessions belonged to the monastery and not individually by the hermits, who now simply

152

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 5, 465.

153

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 9, 469; Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 196.

154

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 5, 465; RB, c. 60.

155

On silence, see Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 9, 468; RB, c. 42. On sleeping, see Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 10, 468; RB, c. 22. On fasting and food, see Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 13-14, 470-471; RB, c. 36, 39-41. Women could visit, but were only allowed to enter the kitchen and the garden. Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 15, 471. 156

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 16-17, 472; RB, c. 54.

239

administered (administrationem) the property of their cells.157 The ability to personally own books, transfer property, and give items away as part of one’s testament came to an end. The reinstatement of a superior at the hermitage proved to be the most significant change outside of the new status of the hermit as a fully professed monk. This new official held the office of vicarius and not presidente, changing the title found in the constitutions of Cardinal della Rovere and rejecting the title of superior and prior used by Boyl.158 The title reflected the reduced authority of the office in relation so the prior of the monastery. For example, the prior, not the hermits, now selected the vicar. He could choose a priest or lay brother from one of the hermits or one of the monks from the monastery.159 The prior could also remove or appoint the vicar at his discretion, removing the protection of term limits found in the 1476 constitutions. In fact, the prior had no obligation to install a vicar at all, even when no priests lived at the hermitage to receive confession, administer the sacrament of penance or celebrate the Mass. Overseeing the spiritual life of the hermits was the principal function of the vicar. He called the weekly chapter of faults, fulfilling the prior’s role of correcting and punishing the recluses.160 He also ensured their weekly confession and attendance at Mass. Like the prior, he had the authority to dispense with confession, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines according to his own judgment. Despite these responsibilities, the vicar was not required to be a priest, placing him in an awkward position of handing out penances but unable to deliver the sacrament.

157

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 19, 474; RB, c. 33.

158

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 4, 465.

159

Colombás argued that this was the dominant practice. Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 192.

160

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 8, 467.

240

Finally, the vicar had some control over the hermits’ property. Repairs and additions to cells needed his or the prior’s approval before they commenced.161 In one statute, Jiménez de Cisneros turned the original intention of the presidente de los hermitaños on its head. Where Cardinal della Rovere instituted the president as a means to restore the independence of the eremitic community from the worldly entanglements of the monastery, the new vicar placed an official governing the hermitage with the authority of the prior according to the new constitutions and those of the Congregation of Valladolid. These powers, in fact, more closely resembled those of Bernat Boyl, though he held his position from the authority of the king and not that of Abbot Joan de Peralta.

The transformation and

restoration of a superior over the hermits (so obviously absent from the Capitulatión of 1493) completely reversed the hermits’ attempt to restore their traditions to the old customs of Abbot Marc de Vilalaba. Certainly, the vicar had a practical value since the prior could not reside at the hermitage.162 Yet, the new vicar, contrary to the presidente under Cardinal della Rovere, became nothing more than an extension of the prior’s jurisdiction over the eremitic community. Jiménez de Cisneros preserved some traditional customs at the hermitage. As already mentioned, the hermits had the right to wear certain clothing, such as the cap particular to their way of life. They also had the choice (but not the right) to ask for their own confessors and seek dispensations when necessary. The prior allowed hermits to become priests and provided priests to the community when they were needed, though he was under no obligation to do so. Pilgrims continued to visit the hermitage to seek spiritual counsel and receive hospitality. Furthermore, the hermits continued to receive material support from the monastery. Food, candles and salt 161

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 7, 466-167.

162

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 192.

241

were provided to maintain the peace and solitude of the community.163 The monastery also retained the responsibility of providing a doctor and medicine and allowed the hermit to receive treatment in his cell or in the monastery as he wished.164 Joint celebrations on special feast days during the year continued, though the constitutions emphasized the need for the hermits to return quickly to the mountain and not dilly-dally in the monastery.165 Monks and hermits could visit each other with permission and remain for short periods of time for personal consolation and to cultivate monastic charity and hospitality.166 The prior also continued to provide the traditional monthly stipend, which had been recently increased to one gold florin.167 Yet the prior placed several restrictions on the stipend’s use. The hermit needed to use the money for provisions, giving alms or repairs to his hermitage. Money leftover at the end of the month transferred to a designated hermit, who would keep the coins until such a time as they were needed to avoid hording and avarice. At the same time, the prior protected the stipend from abuse. The monks could not force the hermit to use the money to pay for his medical care and the prior needed to pay the stipend whether or not the hermit was sick or dead.168 In both cases, the rules protected the hermits from any prior trying to exploit the money for his or the monastery’s gain.169 Finally, in a clear acknowledgment of the past, the prior retained the traditional size of the community. The twelve hermits established by Abbot 163

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 17, 472.

164

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 7, 466-467.

165

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 12, 469-470.

166

Márquez Pailos, “Autoridad y comunidad,” 1:181.

167

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 17, 472.

168

Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 7, 467 and c. 19, 474.

169

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 199.

242

Marc de Vilalba continued to live at Montserrat “according to the ancient customs of this mountain.”170 To ensure the proper comprehension of the constitutions, Jiménez de Cisneros had the constitutions written in both Latin and the vernacular. From the time of its foundation, the Congregation of Valladolid used vernacular and Latin constitutions, ceremonials and customs without privileging one form over another. Of the congregation’s eight surviving customs and ceremonials, three were written in Latin and five in the vernacular.171 Of these eight, one Latin manuscript and perhaps one vernacular manuscript of the ceremonials were copied at Montserrat under García Jiménez de Cisneros, in addition to a vernacular copy of the constitutions based on those originally brought to the community with the reformers. Another set of manuscripts from the second half of the fifteenth-century, one vernacular and one Latin manuscript, also likely came with the reformers to Montserrat, since they were subsequently used for the reform of San Felíu de Guixols on the Catalan coast. The emphasis on bilingual constitutions within the congregation extended to the community of hermits.

Albareda and Baraut have in my opinion rightly argued that the

surviving Latin version of the Constitutiones haeremitarum had a companion manuscript written in the vernacular.172 First, both scholars pointed out how all of the surviving copies of the reformed 1499 Consituciones de los padres ermitaños de la montaña de Montserrat survive in

170

“Quod secundum antiquam consuetudinem huius montaneis sint.” Constitutiones haeremitarum, c. 18,

473. 171

For a discussion of these manuscripts, see Baraut, introduction to García Jiménez de Cisneros: Obras completas, 1: 192 and 203-205. 172

Albareda, “L’arxiu antic de Montserrat.” 123; Baraut, introduction to García Jiménez de Cisneros: Obras completas, 1: 177.

243

the vernacular.173 Second, the one extant copy of the Constitutiones haeremitarum formed part of a larger comprehensive Latin manuscript containing Montserrat’s constitutions, ceremonials and other liturgical offices. According to Albareda, this Latin manuscript served as the official copy of all the rules and ceremonials used at Montserrat: a codicological reminder of the emphasis on unanimity within the congregation.174 Given its brevity, it is easy to believe that each hermit possessed their own copy of the constitutions, whether in vernacular or Latin.

Conclusion On 14 February 1494, nearly ten years to the date when Bernat Boyl completed his translation of Isaac of Nineveh at Sant Cugat del Vallès, the hermits of Montserrat descended to the Monastery of Santa Maria to witness and sign the new constitutions. This new constitutional order ended five hundred years of independence from the monastery. Within a year, the monks and hermits reconfirmed the constitutions and sent them to Rome to receive papal approval. On 1 August 1495, Pope Alexander VI, who had worked as early as 1479 to end the commendam abbacy of Cardinal della Rovere, sanctioned the constitutions and recognized this new experiment in eremitic Benedictinism. As Colombás and others have noted, Cisneros made true Benedictine monks out of the solitaries of Montserrat.175 Yet, their status as monk-hermits differed greatly from the status of those living in the monastery. Despite their time in the

173

Baraut, introduction to García Jiménez de Cisneros: Obras completas, 1: 181-184.

174

Albareda, “L’arxiu antic de Montserrat.” 122-123.

175

Colombás, “La santa montaña,” 171.

244

community, “the hermits juridically never came to enjoy all the same rights as the rest of the members of the congregation.”176 The reform of the Congregation of Valladolid had several problems from the beginning. Problems of culture and jurisdiction created conflict between the indigenous monks and hermits and the reformers from Valladolid. Cajoled by the king, and learning from experience, Jiménez de Cisneros and his brethren adapted the Vallisoletano life to the eremitic traditions of Montserrat. This acculturation had its limits. Although the reforms preserved some of the customs of the mountain, by and large they replaced the traditions with the Observantine understanding of eremitic life based on the Constitutions of the Congregation of Valladolid. The centralizing ideology of the reformers and the insistence on uniformity would not allow any attempt to maintain the hermits’ position as a semi-independent community at Montserrat. The criticism against their customs, based on a Christian-Aristotelian view of natural society, confirmed the animosity towards the ancient customs of the hermits. The departure of several hermits, even those who had professed after July 1493, symbolized the dramatic change of life on the mountain.

The new constitutions, however, did not solve all the problems at the

hermitage. As the new superior of the community, Jiménez de Cisneros needed to provide education supporting his authority and the new Observantine Benedictine understanding of the eremitic way of life. For this, he turned to Isaac of Nineveh, the symbolic abba of the mountain of Montserrat.

176

“No obstante, los solitarios jurídacamente no llegarían a disfrutar de todos los derechos proprios de los demás miembros de la Congregación.” Márquez Pailos, “Autoridad y comunidad,” 1:179.

245

CHAPTER SEVEN ISAAC OF NINEVEH’S DE ORDINACIONE ANIME AND THE REFORM OF THE CONGREGATION OF SAN BENITO DE VALLADOLID AT MONTSERRAT

Introduction Prior García Jiménez de Cisneros’s decision to print a comprehensive set of devotional and liturgical books between 1499 and 1500 has led scholars to ask what prompted the prior to use printed books as a foundation for the general reform of the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid and the Monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat. Historians have by and large followed the work of Henri Watrigant and Pierre Debognie, who argued that Jiménez de Cisneros adopted printed books as an agent for reform after meeting the Dutch Augustinian reformer Jean Mombaer (c. 1460 - 1501) during an embassy to France in the fall of 1496.1 Both historians noted how Jiménez de Cisneros brought back to Montserrat printed books written by Mombaer and fellow Dutch reformers to use as sources for his own spiritual treatises.2 Of these

1

Henri Watrigant, Quelques promoteurs de la méditation méthodique au XVe siècle, Collection de la Bibliothèque Des Exercices de Saint Ignace 59 (Enghien: Bibliothèque des exercices, 1919), 62; Pierre Debognie, Jean Mombaer de Bruxelles abbé de Livry, ses escrits et ses réformes (Louvain: Libraire Universitaire, 1928), 292. Colombás and Baraut followed Watrigant and Debognie. García M Colombás, Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los reyes católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, abad de Montserrat, Scripta et Documenta 5 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955), 131-132; Cipriano Baraut, ed., García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas, 2 vols., Scripta et documenta 15-16 (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 1: 20-21 (hereafter cited as Obras completas). 2

The anonymous Liber reformationis huius monasterii recorded how Jiménez de Cisneros spent eight hundred pounds of gold on the library. Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, “Els abats montserratins del Segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati,” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 172. On the importance of increasing the size of the

246

works, Watrigant and Debognie pointed to the 1494 edition of Mombaer’s Rosetum exercitiorium spiritualium as the primary source and inspiration for Jiménez de Cisneros’s Directorium delas horas canonicas and a major source for his Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual.3 For Watrigant and Debognie, the presence of both reformers near the same place at the same time, along with the Benedictine prior’s acquisition and preference for Mombaer’s Rosetum and other Devotio moderna sources in Jiménez de Cisneros’s writings, suggested that the reformers met at the French court near Tours in the fall of 1496.4 Mombaer’s theological influence on Jiménez de Cisneros and Montserrat’s printing program between 1499 and 1500 has overshadowed the first printed book commissioned by the prior during the reform of Montserrat: Isaac of Nineveh’s De ordinacione anime printed by Diego Gumiel in 1497.5 The lack of attention paid to the De ordinacione anime has left several unresolved questions regarding the prior’s understanding of anchoritic spiritual formation and the role of printing at Montserrat. Most notably, why did the prior print the obscure De ordinacione anime instead of a more traditional Benedictine treatise such as the Rule of Saint Benedict, Gregory the Great’s Dialogues or even the constitutions of the Congregation of San

library in the fifteenth century, see Cebrià Baraut, “Els manuscrits de l’antiga biblioteca del monestir de Montserrat (segles XI-XVIII),” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1955): 350-351. 3

Watrigant, Quelques promoteurs, 62; Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 292-293.

4

Albareda downplayed Mombaer’s importance and remained highly skeptical of the meeting. Anselm M. Albareda, “Intorno alla scuola di orazione metodica stabilita a Montserrato dall'abbate Garsias Jiménez de Cisneros (1493-1510),” Archivum históricum Societatis Iesum 25 (1956): 260. Pierre Groult, despite his support of Watrigant and Debognie, rightly pointed out that several of these texts (except Mombaer’s) already existed in Latin and vernacular manuscripts and printed books in Spain. Pierre Groult, Les mystiques des Pays-Bas et la littérature espagnole du sezième siècle (Louvain: Libraire Universitaire, 1927), 50, 53, 86 and 92-94. 5

Isaac of Nineveh, Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtulis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes (Barcelona: Diego de Gumiel, 1497).

247

Benito de Valladolid?

Such texts provided a more useful set of works for reforming a

community according to a uniform interpretation of Benedictine Observantinism. Placing the publication of the De ordinacione anime within the context of the reform of the hermits, however, demonstrates how the Castialian prior envisioned printing as part of the reforms at the hermitage. This targeted use of printing for the internal reforms of Montserrat was new to Montserrat, and drew directly on his contact with Mombaer and the leaders of the Devotio moderna. Jiménez de Cisneros did not simply rely on the theology of the reformers as recognized by Watrigant and Debognie. Printed books, as they had for Mombaer, were chosen to moderate the introduction of devotional and constitutional reforms in the eremitic community based on the utility of their format and production to unify the community around a common text. This involved not only the format of the printed books, but also sensitivity towards local customs, language and the history of books and reading at the hermitage. The De ordinacione anime, as a text printed for the reform of the hermits, evinced a new devotional relationship between text, community, and individual prayer to create stability between the hermits and the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid as they introduced their reforms at Montserrat.

Jean Mombaer, Books, and Reform at Saint-Séverin de Château-Landon When the Dutch Augustinian canon Jean Mombaer arrived at the French Abbey of SaintSéverin de Château-Landon in 1496, he encountered a community with several similarities to Montserrat under García Jiménez de Cisneros. Saint-Séverin was located in another kingdom where his Congregation of Windesheim had no affiliated communities, and the current abbot,

248

Jaques d’Aubusson, held the abbey in commendam.6 Abbot d’Aubusson wanted to reform the community according to Observantine principals.7 Like Abbot Joan de Peralta, his failure to introduce Observantinism led d’Aubusson to seek an outside group of Observantine Augustinian canons to reform the community. In early 1496, on the advice of the Dutch reformer Jean Standonck (1454-1504), d’Aubusson approached the Congregation of Windesheim to reform Saint-Séverin Château-Landon.8

The diffinitors of the congregation, however, rejected the

petition, citing the differences of language and culture between France and the Netherlands, similar to the initial rejections of the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid with regard to the reform of Montserrat.9 It is not surprising, in this instance, that the monks of Saint-Séverin greeted Jean Mombaer with as little enthusiasm as Montserrat greeted Jiménez de Cisneros and the reformers of Valladolid when he arrived at the abbey in September 1496.10 The canons, as at Montserrat, claimed that they owed no obedience to the reformers because of their original vow of professions and obedience offered to the abbot and not to the new prior. The new prior, they argued, also held no right to his office in the community, as the chapter did not elect him as superior. There was simply no obligation to accept the jurisdiction of the new reformers, their liturgical practices, and the more austere spiritual discipline of the 6 Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 72-74; Augustin Renaudet, Humanisme et Renaissance: Dante, Pétrarque, Standonck, Érasme, Lefèvre d’Étaples, Marguerite de Navarre, Ravelais, Guichardin, Giordano Bruno (Geneva: Librairie E. Droz, 1958), 137; Idem, Préreforme et humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d’Italie (1494-1517), Bibliothèque de l’Institut francçais de Florence, 1 ser., vol. 6 (Paris: Libraire Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1916), 213. 7

Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 74-75.

8

Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 69 and 75; Renaudet, Préreforme et humanisme, 217; Idem, Humanisme et renaissance, 116-117, 124-125, 136; Richard R. Post, The Modern Devotion Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism, Studies of Medieval and Reformation Thought 3 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968), 633. 9

Renaudet, Humanisme et renaissance, 137; Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 76 and 80-81.

10

Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 87.

249

Observantine Windesheim canons. Immediate overt resistance ensued. The canons refused to say the office according to the set hours of the Windesheim customs. Rather, they did so according to the ancient customs of the community.11 They openly criticized the reformers in the cloister and called for the immediate removal of Abbot d’Aubusson for his presumptuous use of authority.12 Two canons even stole the account books in order to frustrate the reformers’ governance of the abbey. Jiménez de Cisneros undoubtedly sympathized with Mombaer’s predicament when he arrived in France that fall. Unlike the Castilian prior, however, Mombaer arrived at Saint-Séverin with a method of reform based on the role of the book, in content and in format, as an agent for reforming religious communities. His understanding of the whole book, and not just the text, derived from his education in Utrecht under the Brethren of the Common Life and several years of religious formation at d’Agnetenberg.13 Here, Mombaer began writing rapiarum, a process of collecting and organizing selections from the Bible, Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers that served as self-chosen personal mnemotechnical verses to remind one of the goals of perfection and contemplation in the religious life.14 As part of this exercise, he used a method called ruminatio, “or short bursts of meditation during preparation for the hours, for study, for a meal, for the collation and for the examination of conscience.”15 His early works perfected these 11

Renaudet, Humanisme et renaissance, 140-143; Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 89-91.

12

Renaudet, Préreforme et humanisme, 220-221.

13

Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 6-7.

14

Thom Mertons, “The Modern Devotion and Innovation in Middle Dutch Literature,” in Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context, edited by Erik Kooper (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 229; Idem, “Lezen met de pen. Ontwikkelingen in het laatmiddeleeuwsgeestelijk proza,” in De studie van de Middelnederlandse letterkunde: stand en toekomst. Symposium Antwerpen 22-24 september 1988, edited by F. P. van Oostrom and Frank Willaert, Middeleeuwse Studies en Bronnen 14 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1989), 196-198. 15

Post, Modern Devotion, 546.

250

practices, especially the popular Chiropsaltarium, which utilized the parts of the hand as a mnemonic device to recall one’s thoughts to God, and his complex, encyclopedic spiritual manual entitled the Rosetum exercitiorum spritualium et sacrarum meditationum. 16 The short mental prayers described in these treatises aided the three principal religious exercises practiced by the Observantine Augustinian canons: the praying of the hours, communion and meditation, all of which were practiced by the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid.17 Though the rapiarium were intended to be personal writings, Mombaer disseminated his works to others within his community and later to the houses within the congregation undergoing reform.18 As Post recognized, the aim of these texts, particularly the Rosetum, “was to foster the inner life, first of the writer himself, then of his fellow brethren and of all those who might wish to study the book.”19 Writing became a means to reform the monastery or congregation as a whole through the sharing of individual devotional prayers. The printing press, however, had the potential of uniting an entire order around uniform devotional readings. Each canon could possess the same identical book, thus unifying the community around the common use of a uniform religious text. It bound the community together through a series of devotional exercises tied to the uniform customs guiding the daily performance of the Divine Office and Mass.

16

Jean Mombaer, Rosetum exercitiorum spritualium et sacrarum meditationum. In quo etiam habetur materia predicabulis per totum anit circulum ([Zwolle: Peter van Os?], 1494); Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 20; Post, Modern Devotion, 537 and 543. The Rosetum led to the writing of the Rosarum hortulus, which contained rosaries of mental prayer organized around the feasts of Christ and Mary. Pierre Debognie, “Une oeuvre oubilée de Mauburnus le Rosarum hortulus,” Revue d’ascetique et de mystique 32 (1927): 394-395 and 398-399. 17

Post, Modern Devotion, 543; John van Engen, Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), 29. 18

Wybren Scheepsma, Medieval Religious Women in the Low Countries: The ‘Modern Devotion’, the Canonesses of Windesheim and their Writings, translated by David F. Johnson (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 1997), 90-92. 19

Post, Modern Devotion, 543.

251

Although the possession of a printed book would diminish the emphasis that the Windesheimers had on copying texts, it had the potential to free time to the intense efforts of silent reading and mental prayer to curtail any thoughts that would distract the canon from meditation.20 The time to complete these exercises, as Post rightly noted, would prove difficult for any Windesheim canon given the demands of the liturgy and communal service in the monastery.21 The ability to possess a ready-made printed book, rather than make a personal copy, freed the individual to pursue the long period of mental prayer used to prepare for daily liturgical services. The Exercitia provided a short, comprehensive and standardized manual of devotional life tied directly to the ceremonials and constitutions used throughout the Congregation of Windesheim. Printing the religious text thus worked against the individually collected and handwritten rapiarium in favor of common printed text derived from a single rapiarium by a single author.22 Content and book design provided a strong communal influence over the highly individualistic, inward tendencies favored by the more extreme proponents of the Devotio Moderna, making personal spiritual reform part of the reform of a religious community as a whole.23 Such uniform texts gave Mombaer and his reformers a potential source for unifying a

20

The Devotionalists were aware of this development, and some members were not happy about the change. Thomas Kock, Die Buchkultur der Devotio moderna. Handschriftenproduktion, Literaturversorgung und Bibliotheksaufbau im Zeitalter de Medienweschsels, in Tradition-Reform-Innovation. Studien zer Modernität des Mittelalters Herausgegeben von Nikolaus Staubach 2 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002), 324; David N. Bell, “The Libraries of Religious Houses in the Late Middle Ages,” in The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, edited by Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Weber, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 1: 138. 21

Post, The Modern Devotion, 546.

22

Richard Rouse and Mary Rouse, “Correction and Emendation of Texts in the Fifteenth Century and the Autograph of the Opus Pacis by ‘Oswaldus Anglicus’,” in Text reprinted Richard and Mary Rouse, Authentic Witnesses: Approaches to medieval Texts and Manuscripts, in Publications in Medieval Studies vol. 17 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 430 and 438. 23

Thom Mertens, “Texte der modernen Devoten als Mittler zwischen kirchlicher und persönlicher Reform,” Niederdeutsches Wort 34 (1994): 73.

252

community and asserting their authority when he arrived at Saint-Séverin de Château-Landon. 24 The benefits would not be lost on Jiménez de Cisneros when printing Issac of Nineveh’s De ordinacione anime and his later publications at Montserrat. The concern for uniformity went hand-in-hand with the interest in providing books designed specifically for the practice of mental prayer. This is most clearly seen in an abridged version of Mombaer’s early version of the Rosetum published by Peter van Os in 1491 with title Exercitia utilissima pro horis solvendis et sacra communione.25 The anonymous editor clearly stated his purpose behind the abridgement. The new work provided a useful and simple means to access the devotional lessons of the original work for the novice.26 The idea begihnd the abridgment of the text, however, directly corresponded to the size chosen for the printed. Van Os published the work in a small octavo format representative of the private devotional texts preferred by the Congregation of Windesheim. In addition, van Os included different type sizes and textual apparatus to guide the novice reader’s reading of the text (Illustration VII. 7. 1.).

24

This was a principal likely derived from traditional Carthusian notions of writing that had a great influence on the Windesheim canons and the Brethren of the Common Life. Rouse and Rouse, “Correction and Emmendation,” 439-440; Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 49; Michael Sargent, “The Problem of Uniformity in Carthusian Book-Production form the Opus Pacis to the Tertia Compilatio Statutorum,” in New Science Out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Honor of A.I. Doyle (London: Aldershot, 1995), 122, 124 and 138. 25

Exercititia utilissima pro horis solvendis et sacra communione cum considerationibus variis de vita et passione domini et sacramento euchristie (Zwolle: Peter van Os, 1491); Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 22-23. 26

“Idcirco pro simplicioribus in consequentibus collecta est valde succincte quaedam practica.” Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 22 n. 1.

253

Illustration VII.1 Exercititia utilissima pro horis solvendis, fol. 8v.

He chose a larger than average type for the main text, even larger font for the chapter divisions and mnemonic guidewords, removed excessive abbreviation and provided a clear spacing between words. 27

The printer also included a large woodcut image of a human hand

(Chiropsalterium) that provided a shortcut to remembering the text when one lacked a copy (Illustration VII. 7. 2.).

27

Belinda Egan, ed., Oswaldi de corda opus pacis (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 83; Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 49. Not all works printed by or for the Brethren of the Common Life or the Windesheim congregation followed these principals. Kenneth Strand, “The Brethren of the Common Life and Fifteenth-Century Printing,” in Essays on the Northern Renaissance, edited by Kenneth A. Strand (Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Publishers, 1968), 347. This was a general trend in manuscript production of religious primers at the end of the Middle Ages that carried over into printed books. Paul Saenger, “Manières de lire medieval,” in Histoire de l’édition française, edited by Henri-Jean Martin and Roger Chartier, 4 vols. (Paris: Promodis, 1982), 1:136-137; Idem, “Books of Hours and Reading Habits of the Later Middle Ages,” in The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, edited by Roger Chartier and translated by Lydia Cochrane (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 141 and 153.

254

Illustration VII.2 Exercititia utilissima pro horis solvendis, fol. 7r.

This format and book design made the book portable, readable and suitable for novices or beginners in the practice of private mental prayer.28 Mombaer, however, took a step beyond simply introducing printed works at SaintSéverin. He edited his writings to conform to local customs in an effort to ease the introduction of his congregation’s religious practices.29 For example, Mombaer added three new rosaries to his Rosarum hortulus specific to Saint-Séverin’s cult of the saints: Sain-Séverin, Saint Agnés,

28

On the importance of small format books in the Devotio Moderna, see Merten, “Modern Devotion and Innovation” 229. On how rapiaria changed the format of books, see Egan, Oswaldi de corda, 83. The press did not create this relationship, but only furthered it. This process coincided with growing preference of silent mental prayer over oral prayer in the fifteenth century. Paul Saenger, “The Impact of the Early Printed Page on the History of Reading,” Bulletin du Bibliophile (1996): 300; Idem, “Books of Hours and Reading Habits,” 142 and 145 and 153; Idem, “Silent Reading: Its Impact on Late Medieval Script and Society,” Viator 13 (1982): 396; Rouse and Rouse, “Correction and Emmendation,” 439; Egan, Oswaldi de Corda, 78-79 and 83. 29

Pierre Debognie, “Corneille Gérard à Saint-Victor,” Nederlandsch Archief voor Kerkgeschiendenis (1923): 168. We should also include the writings of Jean van de Wyngaerde, the sub-prior who journeyed with Mombaer to Château-Landon. Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 17; Renaudet, Humanisme et renaissance, 140.

255

and Saint Theugel.30 He continued this practice during the reform of Saint-Victor in 1497 and 1498, when he asked the canon Corneille Gérard de Gouda to investigate the customs and history of the abbey with the intent to correlate the constitutions with local traditions.31 Mombaer also ordered an investigation into the life of Saint Victor, his works, and writings.32 From this research, Mombaer composed the Stellarium, or The Crown of Twelve Stars of the House of Saint-Victor to promote good relations between him and the house by showing respect for their local saint as an essential part of the daily religious exercises.33 Mombaer later added sections to his Rosetum suited to his monastery in France, which were eventually printed in 1510 nine years after his death.34 The Dutch canon simply carried out what the Windesheimers called the “apostolate of writing”, or the use of written and printed works to disseminate the ideal of individual reform as part of the general reform of a religious community.35 In each case, Mombaer attempted to regain the support of the canons by upholding local traditions while he introduced Observantinism in the monastery.

30

Debognie, “Un oeuvre oubileé,” 398.

31

Debognie, “Corneille Gérard,” 167.

32

Renaudet, Préreforme et humanisme, 224-225; Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 109.

33

Gérard also composed a little poem in honor of Saint-Victor, which according to Debognie was meant to flatter the egos of the canons and show respect for the abbey. Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 110 and 153-154; Debognie, “Corneille Gérard,” 173; Renaudet, Préreforme et humanisme, 227-228. 34

He later composed a reform manual, the Reformatorium, that combined a narrative of his reforms with advice on how to reform a community based on local traditions. One can look at the prologue of the Venatorium to see Mombaer’s concern for continuing the traditions of reform. “Atque o utinam singuale domus suae initia conversationis et processus notarent diligentius. Grande enim hoc esset incitamentum posteris adiumentumque pro sancta disciplina conservanda.” Debongnie, Jean Mombaer, 151 n. 4; Watrigant, “La méditation méthodique,” 80; Kock, Die Buchkultur der Devotio moderna, 24. This was an essential part of Devotionalist charity, which one can often find in their chronicles. Van Engen, Devotio Moderna, 31. 35

Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 44 and 48; Egan, Oswaldi of Corda, 87-88; Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 1: 315-317.

256

Jiménez de Cisneros, to be sure, already recognized the importance of balancing local traditions with the introduction of new constitutions as seen in the writing of the Constitutiones haeremitarum montiserrati. However, Mombaer saw the importance of using devotional works supportive of local traditions and not just constitutions to offset resistance to his reform. Mombaer did not invent this pastoral practice. Balancing local and congregational interests was an established reform method used by the Congregation of Windesheim.36 What we see here is a real interest in assuaging the concerns of the French canons by adapting his devotional works of religious instruction to their local traditions. Yet in Mombaer’s case, as seen in Boyl’s letter to Pedro Zapata, the original personal manuscript became associated with the community as a whole, first through the dissemination of his manuscripts and then through the printed book. The use of printed books for reforming the church was ubiquitous at the end of the fifteenth century. Mombaer, however, showed how the printed book could uphold the reformer’s authority and facilitate constitutional changes by moderating the individualistic character of private mental prayer and eremitic tendencies through books read in common.

He also

recognized importance of the format of the book to encourage the uniformity of devotional practice. We can simply look at the publication of the Exercitia as a product of Mombaer’s view of a text as a comprehensive, uniform devotional treatise based on the constitutional organization of a monastic community and the Observantine practices of the Augustinian canons. Mombaer’s and the Windesheim comprehensive understanding of the book as an agent for reform, as much as the Dutch canon’s theology provided the basis for Jiménez de Cisneros’ decision to print Isaac of Nineveh’s De ordinacione anime upon his return from France. The fact remains that Cisneros

36

Henri Watrigant, “La méditation méthodique et l’école des Frères de la Vie Commune,” Revue d’ascétique et de mystique 3 (1922): 145; Debognie, Jean Mombaer, 80.

257

did not combine printing and reform until he returned from Paris in late 1496 despite residing only twenty kilometers from the dynamic printing activity taking place in Barcelona and witnessing the major printing houses in Rome during his embassies to the city in the 1490s.

Constructing Community and the De ordinacione anime The importance of Mombaer’s and his congregation’s influence on the design and use of the De ordinacione anime at Montserrat becomes evident when examine the format of the book and its use as an instructional tool for the religious instruction of the hermit.

The most basic

evidence can be found in the size chosen for the publication of Isaac’s text. Jiménez de Cisneros chose a small format book, printing the text in octavo rather than in quarto as in the case of 1489 edition of Bernat Boyl’s translation discussed in Chapter Five. The preference for octavo, rather than quarto, reflected the prior’s concern to support the solitary nature of the hermits. As with Mombaer’s Exercitia utililissima, the small size supported the practice of constant private mental prayer given its convenience for carrying the book as an aid to study during the moments dedicated to solitude during the day.37 This concern over the size of the book became clear during the major printing program undertaken by Iohann Luschner at Montserrat between 1499 and 1500. Luschner printed all ten devotional and religious instructional manuals in octavo just as Gumiel had printed the De ordinacione anime in 1497. Luschner published three other works also in octavo, the Hymnorum intonationes, Officium defunctorum and Breviarium, since brothers almost used the texts privately as much as in a communal setting. Only the Missale (folio) and the Processionarium (quarto), were printed in larger sizes.

37

Post, Modern Devotion, 554.

258

The choice of the octavo over other sizes served more than providing a utilitarian book for private reading. The small format reflected the space of the individual cell of the hermits and the monks in a coenobitic community, constructed as they were to reflect the caves inhabited by the early hermits. These small cells created a spatial organization that promoted solitude and mental prayer difficult to practice in a common dormitory. Yet, this solitude in turn encouraged the possession of a personal library to support the religious practices carried out in the enclosed, individual space of the cell.38 Personal libraries held by each monk and hermit now held the potential for unifying the hermits and the monks into a single community through the possession of a small library of common, uniform books. Jiménez de Cisneros likely had this goal from the beginning. By the time Luschner completed his publications in 1500, each monk and hermit had the potential of having a personal library of fourteen uniform books (if we include the De ordinacione anime) for their own private use. This simple act of printing books whose size reflected the space of the reader in the end created a community of readers as much as a community of monks based on the common use of identical texts despite the practice of solitude and distance between the hermitage and the monastery. The use of small libraries within a cell based on common texts differed greatly from the traditional possession of one book at a time within the congregation.39 Theoretically, a book, acquired during lent, stayed with the monk for an entire year according to the Vallisoletano constitutions, a practice dramatically depicted in the one illustrated copy of the congregation’s

38

David N. Bell, “The Libraries of Religious Houses in the Late Middle Ages,” in The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, edited by Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Weber, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 1: 144-145. 39

“Costumbres y cerimonias del monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat,”in Obras completas 2 vols. Scripta et documenta vols. 15-16, ed. Cebrià Baraut (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 2: c. 21, 636, 638, and 640; Plenkers, “Un manuscrit,” 369-370.

259

constitutions currently located at the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. 40 Jiménez de Cisneros on the other hand envisioned a completely novel use of reading materials by the religious community. He saw the small printed book as the key to create a personal ascetic library for each monk and hermit as part of a general, common curriculum of religious study from the first years of the novitiate within the monastery to the potential life as a solitary hermit living on the mountain above the coenobitic community. The novelty proved so great that the old tradition of the Lenten distribution of a single book remained part of the constitutions written Montserrat under Jiménez de Cisneros. The importance Jiménez de Cisneros placed on the size of the book corresponded to the choice of fonts used in the publication of the De ordinacione anime. Gumiel employed two types of fonts for his edition. The first font, identified as M100, is a Gothic font of medium-large size (99/100 G) used for the primary text. The second font, a very close variant of M49, is a smaller Gothic font (64 G) used for the marginal gloss (Illustration VII. 7. 3.).41

40

The manuscript is an unfoliated fifteenth-century copy written in Latin and Castellano from the monastery of Bueso. San Millán de la Cogolla. Biblioteca de San Millán. MS Ceremonias antiguas de la Órden de Valladolid, ENCA Benedictinos. “Costumbres y cerimonias de San Benito de Valladolid,” in Obras completas 2 vols., Scripta et documenta vols. 15-16, ed. Cebrià Baraut (Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965), 2: c. 21, 637, 639, and 641. 41

Haebler, Biliografía Ibérica, 1: #326, 153; Norton, A Descriptive Catalogue, 467.

260

Illustration VII.3. De ordinacione anime, fol. 2r

Using two different sizes of font did not correspond simply to the place the text appeared on the page (less room in the margins required a smaller font); the choice of font aided the brothers’ ability to read and comprehend the text based on the intent of the page designer. A large readable font such as M100 provided a novice reader with several advantages when he encountered the text. The size of font determined the pace of reading: the larger the font, the slower the pace.42 A slower pace allowed the reader to properly construct sentences, and as a consequence take the step towards a deeper level of reflective reading comprehension. The use the same size font for the main text throughout the De ordinacione anime forced the brothers as a group to read the work at a slower pace (variations of course depending on the reading ability of the monk or hermit). The smaller size font of the marginal glosses conversely allowed for a quick reading supplementing the main content of the text. This was not a novel practice. Scribes and printers used multiple size scripts, fonts and/or a variety of styles and languages (Gothic and Humanist / Latin and Greek) within the same book throughout the Middle Ages. However, 42

Paul Saenger, Space between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997), 5-6.

261

fifteenth century saw a rebirth and this system among the Dutch Observantine and Modern Devotion movements. The Brethren of the Common Life and Mombaer’s Congregation of Windesheim made this hierarchy of scripts an essential part of their manuscripts and printed books.43 This same concern for fonts can also be found in other parts of the page, such as foliation and a table of contents, the latter having both chapter and folio numbers to help locate specific sections of the text.44 In each case, placement, as much as font size, determined how the reader used and read the text. As with the size of the book, Jiménez de Cisneros’s later publications demonstrate the importance placed on the size of the font when preparing manuals of religious instruction for the hermits and monks of Montserrat. This is most clearly seen in the Latin and vernacular versions of the Directorio delas horas canonicas and the Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual, each published in fall of 1500. We know, for example, that the prior commissioned a completely new type for the vernacular editions at the cost of an additional twenty-four libras and 7 solidi.45 With these funds, Luschner produced a medium-large type, M16 (75 G) exclusively used for the main text of the vernacular Directorio and Exercitatorio (Illustration VII. 7. 4.).46 Here, the large font

43

Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 38-39.

44

Rouse, “Backgrounds to Print,” 40.

45

This is my interpretation of the account book entry recorded by Méndez, which is distinguished from earlier payments for new types and musical notations associated with the liturgical books. “Item por letra mediana vaciada, en que hubo 2 quintales y 3 libras à 12 libras a quintal, son 24 libras 7 sueldos.” Méndez, Tipografía española, 171. 46

The Exercitatorio and Directorio used another larger font, but only for the title page. Luschner printed the title pages with the larger M7 type also found in the two Latin editions. The vernacular edition of Jean Gerson’s (actually Nicholas Kempf) Epistola Excitativa para el espiritual aprovechamiento published by Luschner at Montserrat in the fall of 1500 also used the new M16 type. Manuel Perdigo, Epístola de Gerson: imprès a Montserrat, l’any 1500 (Barcelona: José Porter, 1948); Vindel, Arte tipográfico, #157, 8: 130-131.

262

provided an easier text to read for any novice reader. It slowed the reading process, giving the person a better chance to understand the text.

Illustration VII.4. Exercitatorio, fol. 7r. Exercitatorium fol. 3r.

On the other hand, the Directorium and Exercitatorium, like the rest of the Latin religious primers printed by Luschner, used an advanced hierarchy of types as part of the layout of the page. These included the medium-large M7 for the chapter titles and mnemonic guidewords, a medium-large M16 (75 G) for the headers and a small M16 (67 G) for the main body of the text. This small font allowed Luschner to print as many as thirty lines per page, while the font for the vernacular text allowed for only eighteen or nineteen lines per page. The hierarchical types found in the Latin editions of the prior’s works resembled the layout of Mombaer’s advanced treatise of the Rosetum exercitatorium, while the vernacular Directorio and Exercitatorio mirrored the font and the layout of Mombaer’s introductory Exercitia utilissima (Illustration VII. 7. 5.). The complex textual hierarchy shown above aided a 263

more advanced reader to move quickly through the text by concentrating on the different mnemontechnical verses, which in turn provided levels of access into the text supporting greater spiritual development similar to the four stages of biblical exegesis. The large fonts captured the reader’s attention, while the increasingly smaller fonts brought the reader into deeper levels of concentration that supported more profound experiences of mental prayer. Illustration VII.5. Exercitia utilissima, fol. 77r. Exercitatorio, fol. 75v.

It should be noted, however, that both the Latin and vernacular editions used similar textual apparatus to aid the reader, including foliation, tables of contents, and rubrics in the case of the Directorio and Directorium given their close relationship to the breviary and missal. Nevertheless, the distinction of font demonstrated Jiménez de Cisneros’s realization that not only language, but also visual organization of the layout of the page needed to be taken into consideration when printing for the reform of the community. The selection of scripts, fonts, in addition to the textual aids of foliation, headers, and table of contents, did more than provide the reader with better access to the text based on their 264

level of reading skills. The form and layout of the page and book responded to and created a social environment through the medium of the book and text. The smaller type used for the marginal glosses in De ordinacione anime, like other visual images, emphasized the importance of the primary text of Isaac’s treatise by drawing the eye to the larger text on the page.47 In so doing, the difference in fonts established a hierarchy of textual, and as a consequence, social authority: the author of the primary text, then the glossator as interpreter of the primary text and then ultimately the reader of the book.48 The smaller font of the glosses and the placement of the glosses in the margins therefore reinforced the authority of Isaac of Nineveh as the author of th text, and as a consequence as the authority over the practice of eremitic life at Montserrat. As with the translation completed by Boyl, the font visually displaced Jiménez de Cisneros as the superior of the community. It reflected the concerns over authority at Montserrat during the early reforms of the community. The monks, hermits and prior yielded to the authority of Isaac on account of his long-term experience in the desert expressed by the central position and large size of the font used for his text on the page. The size of the font and the layout of the page raised Isaac above the prior, which in turn helped displace resistance to the prior’s new authority as he changed the religious life at the hermitage. At the same time, however, Jiménez de Cisneros retained his position of authority as a superior within the community, though in this case as the glossator of the text rather than as the translator and the copyist of the work.

47

Aina Trotzig, “The Iconography of the Enthroned Virgin with the Christ Standing in Her Lap,” in Images of Cult and Devotion: Function and Reception of Christian Images in Medieval and Post-Medieval Europe, edited by Soeren Kaspersen and Ulla Haastrup (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004), 247. 48

Guglielmo Cavallo, “Between Volumen and Codex: Reading in the Roman World,” in A History of Reading in the West, edited by Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier and translated by Lydia G. Cochrane (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 88.

265

Following Mombaer and other reformers, Jiménez de Cisneros adopted the traditional use of images to help instruct the hermits in the new constitutional order at Montserrat. Such woodcuts created a verbal-visual dialogue between the text and image.49 In this case, the prior utilized two woodcuts at the beginning of the text to define the spiritual life at the community as progressive yet equal practice undertaken by the monks and hermits as a single body within the Congregation of Valladolid. Illustration VII.6. De ordinacione anime, fol. 1v. Crucifixion Scene

We can see the progressive nature of the religious life in the first woodcut that appears on fol. 1v directly preceding the beginning of the text on fol. 2r (Illustration VII. 7. 6.). The woodcut depicts a simple but carefully executed image of the Crucifixion. The scene takes place in a rural setting away from a cluster of medieval churches and buildings located on a series of hills in the

49

Cynthia J. Brown, “Text, Image, and Authorial Self-Consciousness in Late Medieval Paris,” in Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, edited by Sandra L. Hindman (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), 111.

266

distance. Christ hangs nailed to the cross with a single spike in each hand and one through both feet. The artist shows Christ in a solemn, peaceful and iconic pose rather than the suffering Christ common in later medieval Europe. An anthropomorphized, languid sun appears above the cross on his right, with a similarly depicted moon on his left. The inscription “INRI” rests directly above the cross, while Adam’s skull lies at its base. The images of Mary and John, respectively located to the right and left of Christ, emphasize the iconic nature of the woodcut as neither Mary nor John engages with Christ in a personal, affective way common to late medieval art. Mary stands in front of the cross folding her arms in calm acceptance of her son’s fate. Her gaze looks downward and away from the closed, restful eyes of her crucified son. The image of John accomplishes the same effect by standing before Christ, engaging Mary instead of the Son of God. He gazes away from Christ with an active and serene stare, while at the same time adopting an open posture with hands held upright in a prayerful position (Illustration VII. 7. 7.). Illustration VII.7. De ordinacione anime, fol. 1v. Crucifixion Scene

The Crucifixion image supports Jiménez de Cisneros’s new social and devotional practices being introduced at Montserrat. First, placing Mary and John before the Crucifixion, 267

and having them engage with each other instead of with Christ, entices the viewer to enter into the image “in the here and now”; to encourage him to imitate the actions of the apostle and the mother of God as he reads the image progressively across the woodcut from one figure to another.50 The artist first draws the viewer to the active motions of John as he moves in an open position towards the reader and Mary on the left side of the image. The viewer then follows John’s motion to the serene figure of Mary who stands contemplatively and at rest in front of the cross. Finally, the offset position of the cross behind Mary and John leads the viewer to the reposed figure of Christ hanging on the cross. The monk or hermit is thus led progressively from the calm but active life of the Apostle John, to the peaceful reflective contemplative life practiced by Mary, to the complete repose embodied in the restful posture of the crucified Christ. As Camille notes, “it is necessary to lay the emphasis on the mimetic strategies that make up the pictorial Imitatio Christi and which make the painter’s effort to imitate Christ's suffering quite different from that of the devout writer or mystic in their meditations.... [one needs] to turn to more psychological models of human identification …. that brings the desiring subject into being.”51

The woodcut therefore does not here serve primarily as adornment, but as an

instructional tool for the practice of devotion within a Benedictine Observantine community.52 The figures in the Crucifixion scene mirror Jiménez de Cisneros’ spiritual and communal hierarchy emblematic of the diverse social groups living on the mountain. The viewer begins by

50

Camille, “Mimetic Identification,” 204.

51

Camille, “Mimetic Identification,” 205.

52

Ruth Chavasse, “Latin Lay Piety and Vernacular Lay Piety in Word and Image: Venice, 1471-Early1500s,” Renaissance Studies 10/3 (1996): 321.

268

practicing the active life as a novice monk modeled by John.53 He then progresses to the more advanced practice of the contemplative life by the seasoned choir monk as seen in the figure of Mary, to the complete peace (quies) emblematic of the iconic Christ, who like the solitary hermit, remains alone at a distance from the rest of the community. Christ, seemingly less important in the initial reading, becomes the height of the devotional life in the image as one progresses from the active engagement of the world found in the apostle to the complete repose of Christ on the cross.54 The image nevertheless remains communal and not individual. Whether one is a novice or seasoned hermit, one moves from the image to the same goal of the religious life found in the first line of the text: “The soul that loves God has peace only in God.”55 Reading this communally, rather than individually, takes on greater relevance when we consider that the text was chosen for the hermits who stood at the summit of the religious life just as the quiet repose in Christ stood at the height of the monastic contemplative experience, but now, according to Jiménez de Cisneros, lived equally among the other members of the community despite their life in solitude above the monastery.56 53

Jiménez de Cisneros paraphrased Gregory’s treatment of Rachel and Lea, where Rachel represents the contemplative life that superceded Lea’s active life in marriage to Jacob. Gregory the Great, Homélies sur Ézéchiel, in Sources Chrétiennes vols. 327 and 360, edited and translated by C. Morel (Paris: Cerf, 1986 and 1990), 3.9. Baraut identifies the passage from the Moralia. Gregory the Great, Moralia sur Iob, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina vols. 143, 143A, and 143B, ed. M. Adriaen (Turnhout, Brepols, 1979), VI.37.59-60. Both texts were read during conferences. “Costumbres y cerimonias del monasterio,” c. 48, 721-722; Plenkers, “Un manuscrit” 371. On this interpretation, see Bernard McGinn, The Growth of Mysticism: Gregory the Great through the 12th Century, vol. 2, The Presence of God. A History of Western Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroads, 1994), 2: 76-77. 54

“Pues que assí es, el devoto religioso que dessea el spíritu hecho ‘a la ymagen y semejança de Dios,’ caydo de Jerusalem en Gericó, conviene a saber, de estado de paz y tranquilidad a estado tan mudable, reformar y restituyr al grado primero, muy necessaria cosa es que tomando exemplo del claríssimo propheta sus dicho [David]...” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 1: c. 2, 98. (hereafter Exercitatorio). 55

“Anima qui deum diligit in deo solo quietem habet.” Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 2r.

56

Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God. A Study of Monastic Culture, tr. Catharine Misrahi (New York: Fordham University Press, 1961; reprint, 1996), 27-28. Christ’s preeminence as the first hermit and summit of eremitic life was acknowledged at Montserrat if we accept that Madrid BPR, MS II/795 belonged to the monastery or hermits. “Dela vida ermitanya,” Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795, fols. 141r-141v.

269

The woodcut’s placement in the books functioned as visual gloss that guided the reader of the text as much as the textual glosses located on the page. Despite being a single image, it redirected the pace of reading and comprehension much like the large font used in the text “slowly, in fits and starts, with constant stops to reread and pore over complexities and difficulties.”57 It prepared the reader’s interpretive stance by providing a mnemonic device that will become fixed in the mind of the brother at any point while reading of the De ordinacione anime. The images became a “short cut” to the text to be used at idle moments during the day.58 In Jiménez de Cisneros’ view, such illustrations fixed the mind on God rather than the objects of the world.59 This small image placed the hermit in a living relationship with the figures in the image, sharing the experience of Mary, John, and Christ on the cross.60

It turned Saint

Benedict’s textual warning to keep Christ always before one’s eyes into a visual image on the page.61 One simply needed to return to the image to remind oneself of Isaac’s ascetic doctrine. The image in this sense became a visual “language of instruction” that helped prepare the brother for the practice of mental prayer that supports the call to extirpate vice and acquire virtues for the union of the soul with God.62

57

Michael Camille, “Reading the Printed Image: Illuminations and Woodcuts of the Pèlerinage de la vie humaine in the Fifteenth Century,” in Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, edited by Sandra L. Hindman (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), 274 and 283. 58 59

Post, Modern Devotion, 553. Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 4, c. 48, 323.

60

Michael Camille, “Mimetic Identification and Passion Devotion in the Later Middle Ages: A DoubleSided Panel by Meister Francke,” in The Broken Body: Passion Devotion in Late-Medieval Culture, edited by A. A. MacDonald, H. N. B. Ridderbos, and R. M. Schulsemann (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1998), 190-192. 61

“Christo omnino nihil praeponant.” Fry, RB 1980, 72.11.

62

Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, f. 2r.

270

The second woodcut furthered the prior’s interest in cultivating a unified community socially, and not simply devotionally, in the practice of Observantinism. (Illustration VII.6). The woodcut appears directly below the Crucifixion on fol. 1v, as a somewhat smaller, simpler but no less attractive work of art. The image depicts an unframed coat of arms belonging to the monastery, which consists of a rounded Swiss-style shield chéf dentelé emblazoned with the mountain of Montserrat. A large saw, in fact as large as the mountain, surmounts and cuts through the uppermost peak. The coat of arms is a modified version of the monastery’s seal found in the indulgences, which shows the Virgin of Montserrat holding the Christ child, who in turn uses a saw to serrate the mountain into its individual peaks. The coat of arms identified the authority, in this case the monastery, behind the publication. At the same time, it encouraged the monk or hermit to visually associate himself with the community as whole, and not that of a particular part of the community.

This

communal emphasis was augmented by the fact that neither the monastery nor the hermitage appeared separately in the image. Rather, one is left with the singleness of the mountain as a visual reminder of the newly unified community under the direction of the Congregation of Valladolid. The printed image, in this sense, “acted as an equalizing agent in regard to all persons associated with the making of the book.”63 The lonely mountain printed in each copy of the book offset the individualistic, independent religious lives traditionally maintained by the hermits. It reinforced how the Vallisoletano reformers brought the hermits and monks together into a single community through the creation of a new enclosure that joined the monastery and the hermitage into one spatial body located on the mountain. The authority of the reformers

63

Brown, “Text, Image, and Authorial Self-Consciousness,” 118-119.

271

therefore became “a foundation, an origin to which the present writer refers and defers” by external sanctions to the main text as represented visually represented in the layout of the page.64 It is not surprising that Jiménez de Cisneros adopted a similar use of printed images for the reform of the Confraternity of Montserrat since the confraters needed to conform to new constitutions and devotional practices that accompanied the their reform. The prior, like many contemporary reformers, chose woodcut images printed on indulgences to aid the devotional practices of the laity and bring the confraternity into the extended family of Montserrat.65 The press allowed for considerably more elaborate pardons than manuscript versions, especially in the use of woodcut illustrations.66 Such was their importance of these images that the Monastery of Nuestra Señora del Prado ordered strict rules on the content and placement of images in the bulls issued on behalf of the Hospital of Santiago in 1503.67 The images did not need to be large, such as the broadsides promoting the practice of the rosary among confraternities in Germany and Italy.68 Rather, they could be the simple, small woodcuts found in printed indulgences.69 Jiménez de Cisneros chose a small woodcut image of the monastery’s seal printed on the bottom left side of the first printed indulgences at Montserrat. Rosembach and Luschner, two of the three pre-1499 printers of the indulgences, employed at least two distinct, but similar images when printing the indulgences. Rosembach’s depicted the Virgin Mary seated on the mountain 64

Tribble, Margins and Marginality, 2.

65

Lewis, “Rewarding Devotion,” 181; Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 31; Swanson, “Letters of Confraternity,” 58; Idem, “Praying for Pardon,” 231. 66

Swanson, “Letters of Confraternity,” 50.

67

Luis Fernández, La real imprenta del monaterio de Nuestra Señora de Prado 1481-1835 (Salamanca: Europa Artes Gráficas, S.A.; Junta de Castilla y León Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 1992), 18. 68

Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 69-70.

69

Swanson, “Praying for Pardon,” 231

272

with the infant Jesus, sawing the mountain’s peaks to the right, while Luschner’s showed the Virgin Mary standing with the infant Jesus among the mountain peaks, while Christ sawed the mountain into its various summits (Illustration VII. 7. 8.). Illustration VII.8. Indulgences for the Confraternity of Montserrat Luschner, 1498?

Rosembach,1498?

These woodcuts promoted the confraters or confratissas psychological association with the community through the veneration of the image associated with the monastery and the monks. It validated the ongoing experience that they would have had in peregrinating to the shrine, whether by foot or through a virtual pilgrimage undertaken by the act of mental prayer.70 For the latter, the reenacted pilgrimage was not tied directly to traveling in time to the location of the shrine.71 Rather one could cross time and space, as in the case of the De ordinacione, through the psychological understanding that redemption came through the veneration of the image and prayer, specifically the Ave Maria.72 The images used for mental prayer became more important for the process of salvation than the payment for the original pardon given their ability to be used over an extended period of time.73 For the illiterate, the images diverted the reader from a barely comprehensible text: it 70

Camille, “Mimetic Identification,” 183.

71

Camille, “Mimetic Identification,” 194.

72

Lewis, “Rewarding Devotion,” 183-184; Swanson, “Praying for Pardon,” 218.

73

Swanson, “Praying for Pardon,” 213.

273

was an “invitation to read the text, invitations to literacy,” especially the prayer of absolution found at the bottom of the indulgence.74 One can see here how the public image of the Virgin of Montserrat found in the widespread circulation of the printed indulgence “becomes a private image or foci of private devotion when the image is held by the individual in a text.”75 The woodcuts did not simply function as seals validating the indulgence, though this was part of their purpose on the page. They became artistic devices aiding private devotion as promoted by the Observantine monks during their reforms.76 The Vallisoletano reformers therefore substituted the lost merits associated with oral prayers and communion with those now ascribed to the practice of mental prayer; a belief promoted by the Observantine adherents to the Devotio moderna movement, primarily by the lay reformer Wessel Gansfort, but also to a lesser extent by the Windesheim canon Jean Mombaer.77 The indulgence remained an object of personal devotion that by its very nature became almost talismanic in its ability to aid the confrater or confratissa against the attacks of the demons and the devil by occupying their mind through prayer with the redemptive powers of the Virgin of Montserrat just a the monks and hermits did within the monastery.78 In this sense, Jiménez de Cisneros regularized the devotional practices of the confraternity by assigning a standard “mnemonic, pedagogic, and incantory meaning” through the uniform text and image found in the

74

Driver, “Pictures in Print,” 238.

75

Lewis, “Rewarding Devotion,” 187 and 192.

76

Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 78-79; Terpstra, Lay Confraternities, 62; Edwards, “‘España es diferente’?,” 153. 77

Post, Modern Devotion,” 554.

78

Terpstra, Lay Confraternities, 62; Edwards, “‘España es diferente’?,” 153.

274

printed indulgence.79 The uniform text and image brought the confraternity into a single body centered on the monastic community. Just as with the hermits, the constitutional relationship between various groups at Montserrat remained incomplete without maintaining the devotional practices supporting the new customs at the monastery and hermitage.80 This use of images in the De ordinacione anime and the confraternal indulgences foreshadowed the woodcuts in the books of religious instruction and the liturgy printed between 1499 and 1500 at Montserrat. Two of Luschner’s publications used the same seals he previously used in the confraternal indulgences, though he also composed two new seals for different works (Illustration VII. 7. 9.).81 Illustration VII. 9. De instructione novitiorum, fol. 20v. Meditationes vitae christi, fol. 159v.

Horae, fol. 88v.

Exercitatorio, fol. 1r.

79

Terpstra, Lay Confraternities, 62.

80

Anselm M. Albareda, “L’Arxiu Antic de Montserrat,” Analecta Montserratensia 3 (1919): 106.

81

Bonaventure (Pseudo), Liber meditationum vite domini nostri iesu christi (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 April 1499); Bonaventure (Pseudo) and Martin of Braga, Sanctus bonauentura de instructione nouitiorum, et De quatuor virtibus cardinalibus (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 June 1499); Horae secundum ordinem sancti benedicti (Barcelona: Iohannes Luschner, 1498?).

275

In his own writings, the prior employed a stark image of the arma christi in his Exercitatorio and Exercitatorium (Illustration VII. 7. 10.).82 Here, the image is placed at the beginning and the end of the book reminding the reader that Christ is both the alpha and the omega governing the world. As with the Crucifixion scene in the De ordinacione anime, Christ is placed before all things in the mind of the monk prior to reading the text.83 Illustration VII. 10. Exercitatorio, fol. 1v.

Exercitatorio, fol. 159v.

Several other works contained full-page panoramic image depicted the entire mountain and its inhabitants (Illustration VII. 7. 11.).84 Several peaks and crags that distinguish the mountain

82

García Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio de la vida espiritual (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 13 November 1500); Idem, Exercitatorium vitae spiritualis, translated by Fernando de Torquemada (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 15 November 1500). 83

“Ninguna cosa antepongas a Christo…” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 4, c. 69, 454.

84

Bonaventure (Pseudo), Liber meditationum vite domini nostri iesu christi (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 April 1499); Bonaventure (Pseudo) and Martin of Braga, Sanctus bonauentura de instructione nouitiorum, et De quatuor virtibus cardinalibus (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 June 1499); Benedict of Nursia, Regula eximii patris nostri beatissimi Benedicti (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 12 June 1499); Bonaventure (Pseudo) [Hugo de Balma], Incendium Amoris, alias Regimen conscientiae vel Fons Vitae. Opus Contemplationis (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 27 May 1499); Gerard von Zutphen, Tractatus de spiritualibus ascensionibus (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 May 1499); Processionarum secundum consuetudinem monachorum congregationis sancti Benedicti de Ualladolid (Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 26 August 1500).

276

cover the image. The castle of Olesa and a small church appear at the base of the image on the lowest peaks. The monastery resides halfway up the mountain, showing its mediating place between the world below and the hermits above. Several hermitages dot the uppermost peaks, looking down on the monastery and valley below.

Dominating the image, however, is a

monumental depiction of the Virgin of Montserrat holding an adolescent Christ sawing the mountain peaks. Several crosses spring up from the landscape throughout the picture, reminding the reader that the Incarnation directly related to the victory over sin with the Crucifixion. The message could not be clearer.

The Virgin of Montserrat and Christ protected the entire

community and that the devotional books supporting the hermits and monks’ prayers dedicated to the Virgin came directly from the press hired by Prior Jiménez de Cisneros. Illustration VII. 11. De instructione novitiorum, fol. 1r.

The marginal glosses in the De ordinacione anime likewise contributed to Jiménez de Cisneros’s vision for reforming the community. Only fourteen of the forty-one chapters have any form of printed marginalia. Of these, three chapters received extensive attention by the 277

glossator. Chapter One, On the Soul Loving God, contains the most glosses with twenty-seven. This is followed by Chapter Seven On the Difference of Tears with twelve. Chapter Six, a general sermon responding to the questions of various anonymous monks, received eight larger glosses with an additional eight small notations. The rest of the glossed chapters have only one to three glosses each. Even the larger glosses are limited in nature, consisting of one short sentence rather than an extensive commentary. The rest of the marginal notes use typical nota benes or three or four words that identify the subject matter found in the main text. The glosses in the De ordinacione anime comment on basic points in monastic life and theology. The glossator, however, focused on the types of problems that confronted Jiménez de Cisneros during his reforms. The issues of obedience, discord, and the superiority felt by advanced hermits (and monks) over others surfaced several times in the glosses. At times, the gloss simply directed the reader to the appropriate text. In Chapter Thirteen, he simply noted in the margin that the section deals with humility (De humilitate).85 In Chapter One, the glossator wrote the gloss “The way of speaking to others, or teaching the way of God” to single out Isaac’s short discourse on the importance of showing humility and accepting criticism from one’s brothers.86 A more extensive example appears in Chapter Twenty-Three, when he commented on, “If, however, he should say in his heart to any monk that that they should guard against these things when he does not wish to condemn that which ruins him. Therefore, he deceives his friend.”87 Isaac offered a simple instruction to the reader: beware the hypocrite who offers advice to one but won’t accept his own faults. The glossator here picked up Isaac’s theme of hypocrisy, 85

Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 73r.

86

“Modus loquendi aliis vel docendi uiam domini.” Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 7v.

87

“Si quis autem monachorum dixerit in corde suo, quo ab hiis cauet sibi, hic quando percutitur addicere non vult. Quicumquem enim decipit amicum suuum.” Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 105v.

278

but turns it into a more direct commentary on those who wrongly claim spiritual superiority: “Against the many monks who say ‘I am not tested in this or in that’ just as they say that ‘I am virtuous’, and if they do not say it in words, nevertheless they speak of it in their hearts.”88 Earlier in the text, the gloss “The Devil goes after the saints more than novices” directed the reader to Isaac’s warning that “Therefore he does not seek novices, simple and rustic folk in the same degree as great holy men [i.e. hermits], so he tempts them (Illustration VII. 12.).”89 Illustration VII. 12. De ordinacione anime, fol. 66r.

Basic theological statements by Isaac receive commentary when they discuss humility and spiritual pride. The glossator made sure his readers understood their inability to achieve spiritual perfection without the aid of God. In Chapter One, for example, he provided the gloss “That which is the sign of grace they receive” to maintain the orthodox position that God’s grace

88

“Contra plures monachos qui dicunt ego non periclitor in hoc vel in hoc quasi dicant virtuosus sum et si non dicunt verbo tandem locuntur cordibus suis.” Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 105v. 89

“Magis expetit diabolus sanctos quam nouicios” and “Nouicios vero et simplices et rudes, non expetit adeo sicut sanctos magnos vt temptet eos”. Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 66r.

279

lies behind the gift of tears rather than personal effort.”90 Similarly, one should not scrutinize, but adore the mystery of God when one is fortunate enough to experience God’s presence in contemplation.91 Continuous prayer, particularly in solitude, becomes the most effective means to cultivate this humility, as the prayerful hermit or monk acknowledges the need for God’s aid and mercy to save him from original sin.92 Jiménez de Cisneros’ concern to extend his authority through glossing a text go beyond the margins of the De religione to the internal glossing of sources used in the Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual. As the principal book of religious instruction at Montserrat, the Exercitatorio addressed the equality of its members regardless of their position within the religious community. To do this, the prior provided substantial internal glossing when rewriting into his own text the Latin translation of Jean Gerson’s (1350-1420)93 Montaigne du contemplation, which he brought back from France along with Mombaer’s Rosetum.94

90

“Quod est signum gracie receperunt.” Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 9r.

91

“Quod in contemplacione non sit nimis diuina eloquia per scrutanda.” Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 10r. 92

Isaac of Nineveh, De ordinacione anime, fol. 75v.

93

Jean Gerson attended the University of Paris at the College of Navarre from 1377 to 1392. He received his licentiate of Arts in 1381, and his Baccalaureate of Theology in 1390. His education continued at Paris, and he received his licentiate and master of Theology degree. After a period of service as almoner of Duke Philip le Hardi of Burgundy (d. 1404) and as dean of the chapter at Saint-Donatien de Bruges, Gerson succeeded Pierre d’Ailly (1350-1420) as chancellor of the University of Paris on 13 April 1395. He was one of the principal proponents of conciliarism at the Council of Constance between 1415 and 1418. 94

The multi-volume edition of Gerson’s works were published several times prior to 1496. Cebrià Baraut argued that Jiménez de Cisneros read the complete original French text of the Montaigne. However, the text follows the standard Latin translation completed by an anonymous canon, probably during Gerson’s life. Baraut, Obras Completas, I: 93. Anselm Albareda argued that Cisneros primarily had access to Gerson’s text via the selections he found in Mombaer’s Rosetum. Albareda, “Intorno alla scuola di orazione,” 309. I am using the 1484 edition by Koelhoeff. Jean Gerson, Opera, 3 vols. (Cologne: Johannes Koelhoeff de Lübeck, 1483-1484);

280

In Chapter Thirty-Five, for example, the prior glossed Gerson’s discussion of the Rule of Saint Benedict regarding the steps in religious life prior to becoming a hermit.95 Gerson, who wrote his work for his anchoritic sisters,96 recognized that some Christians like Saint Benedict first became hermits without ever living in a community.97 Gerson, following the Life of Saint Benedict in Book II of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, argued that the ability to live in solitude without training was given as a special grace given by God. He noted how Benedict even advised monks to enter the monastery before undertaking the eremitic life.98 This argument fit perfectly with Jiménez de Cisneros’s view of the eremitic life as outlined in the constitutions of 1494. However, the prior added key words to Gerson’s text to comment on the nature of authority at Montserrat. The prior added the important phrase “nuestro padre” to Gerson’s “sanctus Benedictus.”99 While Jiménez de Cisneros kept Gerson’s text, his small addition reaffirmed how Benedict now served as the father governing the life of the entire community. The subsequent text referencing Benedict’s Rule emphasized the new state of the monastery under a single rule and abbot.100

95

For this section, I will quote the Latin text used by Jiménez de Cisneros followed by Jean Gerson’s original French text to show the variations between the two works. Jean Gerson, Oeuvres completes, 10 vols, ed. Palemon Glorieux (Paris: Desclee, 1960), 7: 16-57. 96

Gerson wrote the Montaigne du contemplation between 1399 and 1400. James Connolly, John Gerson: Reformer and Mystic (Louvain: Librairie Universitaire 1928), 326-327. 97

“Quibusdam ex gratia dei speciali collatum fuit, ut in iuuentute sua solitudini et solitarie habitationi seipsos traderent, quemadmodum sanctus Benedictus legitur fecisse. ” Gerson, De monte, c. 18, fol. 52v; “Est advenu en aulcuns par grace especiale que en leur jeunesse se sont mis en solitude et a demorer seuls, comme saint Benoit. ” Gerson, Montaigne, c. 18, 27-28. 98

Fry, RB1980, 1.3-5.

99

“Algunos por graçia especial fue dado que en su juventud solos morasen en la soledad, assí como se lee haver hecho nuestro padre sanct Benito.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, 4:35, 284. 100

“El, empero, en su Regla no conseja esto” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, 4:35, 284.

281

Jiménez de Cisneros offered a more extensive and direct attack on the previous life of the hermits at Montserrat in his gloss on the type of training needed to become a seasoned anchorite. The De monte’s non-specific description of how religious conversion occurs only in community according to their custom101 becomes an opportunity to remind the monks that this custom derived only from training in the active life of the monastery according to the constitutions the Congregation of Valladolid and not those at the hermitage: “And those who at one time dared to do the contrary, to seek solitude and leisure of the hermit, without preceding in the work and exercises of the active life and good teaching and custom of conversion in the congregation, were defrauded and shamefully fell [into sin]” leading to a state of community disorder detrimental to the solitary life.102 Jiménez de Cisneros likewise used his internal glosses to attack the hermits’ spiritual pride as related to the less austere life of the monks in the monastery. For instance, the prior informed the reader that solitude is not the prerogative of a few or a specific place. Inner solitude not external solitude determined the quality of the ascetic: “we have enclosure not only on top of mountains and in deserted places, but wherever such places may be lived in [that is physically] or exercised [that is interiorly] in order to reject the world or to avoid its tumults, with all of its occupations and cares.”103 Cisneros altered the De monte to fit the geographic and

101

“Scilicet querere solitudinem et ociositatem sine precedente labore et preuia bona instructione ac consuetudine conuersationis inter societatem miserabiliter sunt defraudati.” Gerson, De monte, c. 18, fol. 52v; “Et ceulx qui ont voulu ce faire, c’est assavoir querir sollitude et oisiveté sans labourer et sans premierement estre bien apris et acoustumes avecques compagnie, ont este deceuz miserablement.” Gerson, Montaigne, c. 18, 28. 102

“Y aquellos que en algún tiempo lo contrario han osado hazer, conviene a saber, buscar la soledad y ociosidad del hermita, sin que precediesse el trabajo y exerciçio de la vida activa, y buen enseñamiento y costumbre de conversaçion en la congregaçion, miserablemente cayeron y fueron deffraudados.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, 4:35, 284 and 286; “Para quitar por estas cosas las cogitaciones que en otras casas desordenadas podrían tener, si estoviessen solitarios.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, 4:35, 286. 103

“Tenemos ençerramiento no solamente en los montes y en los lugares desiertos puestos, mas donde quier pueden ser havidos o exerçitados los tales lugares para declinar el mundo, o para evitar el ruydo dél, con todas

282

social context of Montserrat.

Gerson’s environment of the wooded plains of France becomes

omnipresent mountain of Montserrat.104 At the same time he inserted a gloss on enclosure not found in Gerson’s original French version. Enclosure, therefore, is not restricted to the physical location of the hermitage on the mountain peaks, but is available to all members of the community in the enclosure of the heart living in the physical enclosure of the monastery (personas emparedadas). The Congregation of Valladolid’s enclosure of the hermitage in the fall of 1493 within the greater enclosures of the monastery became in this sense a physical, spatial analogy to the spiritual enclosure found equally among each monk and hermit on the mountain. Jiménez de Cisneros closed the historical distance between Isaac and the hermits, as much as the hermitage and the monastery, by using the book to make Isaac’s presence as an authority living in the community through his active participation as a glossator and the reading of the De ordinacione anime. The lack of long interpretive glosses upheld the authority of Isaac’s teachings and increased the value of the De ordinacione anime over the glosses, while allowing the glossator to maintain a level of authority by directing the reader’s attention to particular passages. The glosses guided the reader, but more importantly constructed the authority found in the distinct texts found on the same page. As Reynolds noted, “authority was subject to the conditions and purposes of its use; one might even broaden the point to say that its

sus ocupaciones y cuydados.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, 4:35, 286. See also, “Pero es verdad que el principal secreto y silencio ha de ser dentro en el ánima más que de fuera.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 4, c. 39, 296. 104

“Habemus enim et reclusorium non solum in nemoribus locis quam desertis positum, sed vbicumque possunt haberi vel exerceri ad declinandum mundum seu euitandum eius tumultum cum omnibus suis occupationibus et solicitudinibus.” Gerson, De monte, c. 18, fol. 53r; “Car hermitaige et reclusaige ne sont mie seulement es boys et es desers, mias en tous lieus on lez puet avoir et exercer par eschever le bruit du monde et toutes ses sollicitudes et occupations. ” Gerson, Montaigne, c. 18, 28.

283

very nature was contingent upon the contexts in which it operated.”105 The physical layout of the text led the reader to value the authority of the primary text over that of the glossator. Woodcuts as glosses and textual glosses in the margins constructed the new religious world of Montserrat through the organization and layout of the book.106 The authority of the glossed book was conditioned by external factors, not simply the internal spiritual path of the reader, being constantly “reinvented for each of the various purposes it was meant to serve.”107 It is in this process of reinvention that scholars have completely overlooked the relevance of Hurus’s 1489 vernacular edition of the De religione for the publication of Gumiel’s 1497 Latin edition of the De ordinacione anime. Jiménez de Cisneros, rather than seeing the Latin edition as and independent work, saw the Latin text as a companion volume to the 1489 edition of Boyl’s translation. In this, Jiménez de Cisneros did not differ from Boy’s use of Latin and vernacular texts, except that the latter used manuscripts and never saw printing as an agent for the internal reforms at Montserrat during his tenure as superior over the eremitic community. For Jiménez de Cisneros, however, the concern over bilingual texts extended to both the hermits and the monks in his attempt to form both groups into a single body. Each monk and hermit could now possess their own printed copy depending on their language ability. It did not matter whether the reader was a hermit or monk or whether the reader could read Latin or Castilian. The importance resided in reading a common and uniformly printed text by each brother at Montserrat, not in the language of the text. As with Boyl, the vernacular became a means to

105

Suzanne Reynolds, “Inventing Authority: Glossing, Literacy and the Classical Text,” in Prestige, Authority and Power in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts, edited by Felicity Riddy (Woodbreige, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2000), 16. 106

Reynolds, “Inventing Authority,” 16; Tribble, Margins and Marginality, 3.

107

Reynolds, “Inventing Authority,” 7.

284

inculcate humility and counter pride within the educated monk or hermit:108 “Because the humble ones, for the great deal that they know, will not esteem the good any less when it is said in a vulgar or plain style.”109 Jiménez de Cisneros, however, took this view of language to another level; for the first time in Europe we see the publication of Latin and vernacular printed versions of the same text to provide a uniform curriculum of religious education. No brother would be set apart by their language skills or religious education just as they would not be distinguished by their type of vocation in the monastery. This equality of language resonated throughout the prior’s early reforms. It extended to the confraternal indulgences printed between 1497 and 1500. From the beginning, Jiménez de Cisneros commissioned the confraternal indulgences in Latin and the vernacular as part of the reform of the confraternity. Like many other religious figures, the use of both languages supported the interest in the indulgences as a source for the devotional life of the laity. Using both languages also recognized the importance of accommodating the local confraternity in their native language, thus reconnecting with the locals who had been alienated by the Vallisoletano monks when they took control of the monastery in 1493. Emphasis on the common text of the indulgence, rather than the uniform language, invited the members of the confraternity to become part of the extended family of Montserrat. Even the indulgences printed in Castilian

108

This understanding was expressed later in his Exercitatorio. “Porque nuestra intençión ha seydo de hazerle para los simples devotos, y no para los letrados soberbios.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 4, c. 69, 454. He borrowed this text from Jean Gerson, who made this argument to uphold the rights of his sisters to read theological texts for their own spiritual formation. “Je veuil escripre en francois plus qu’en latin, et plus aux femmes que aux hommes, et que ce n’est pas matiere qui appartiengne a gens simples sans lettre.” Gerson, Montainge, c. 1, 16. This found in the word play between God as ultimate simplicity (simplece) found by having simplicity of heart (simplece de cuer) by the spiritual exercises of ordinary people (simples gens). Gerson, Montaigne, c. 2, 16-17. This is developed in the same manner by Cisneros. Jiménez de Cisnero, Exercitatorio, bk. 4, c. 32, 278. 109

“Ca los humildes, por mucho que sepan, no menos estimarán lo bueno por ser dicho en vulgar y llano estilo.” Jiménez de Cisneros, Exercitatorio, bk. 4, c. 69, 454. Educated monks usually claimed a level of superiority due to their education. Bell, “The Libraries of Religious Houses,” 128.

285

after the congregation’s general reform in 1500 emphasized the common veneration of the Virgin as a communal act shared between the confraternity and the community of Montserrat.110 The decision in 1499 to print Jiménez de Cisneros’ Directorio delas horas canonicas and the Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual in bilingual editions best illustrates the importance of bilingual education as part of his reforms. Begun sometime after his return from Paris, Jiménez de Cisneros wrote the Directorio and the Exercitatorio as complimentary religious primers that formed the basis of practicing mental prayer at Montserrat. He originally wrote both texts in Castilian, a choice reflective of his native language and the language now used by the majority of the brothers and hermits in his community. However, he also asked Fernando de Torquemada (d. 1521), a Benedictine monk from San Juan de Burgos, to translate the two texts into Latin.111 From the beginning, the prior intended the Latin translations, entitled the Directorium horae canonicae and the Exercitatorium vitae spiritualis, to serve as the companion editions to the original Castilian texts.112 He soon commissioned Iohann Luschner to print each title in the fall of 1500 for the reform of the congregation: the Directorio on Sept 30, the Exercitatorio on November 13, the Exercitatorium on November 15, and the Directorium in late November. We can see here how what began as a strategy to deal with the unique context of the reform of hermits and the monastery through the publication of the De ordinacione anime in 1497 ultimately extended to reform of the entire Congregation of Valladolid in 1499 and 1500.

110

Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual, “Una bula de Montserrat incunable y desconocida (1499),” Hispania Sacra 41 (1989): 81. 111

Albareda, “Historia inédita,” 101.

112

“Et deinde eadem Exercitatoria e vulgari in latinum interpretata imprimi fecimus, quatenus sapientibus et insipientibus singulis juxta modum suum viam Domini inquirentibus pararemus.” Albareda, “L’arxiu,” 107.

286

This association between Isaac and the hermits as seen by Jiménez de Cisneros extended beyond the traditions at Montserrat to the entire Benedictine order.

Jiménez de Cisneros

believed like Boyl that Isaac of Spoleto and not Isaac of Nineveh authored the De ordinacione. This association had special resonance for any monk or hermit associated with Benedictine monasticism. Isaac of Spoleto appeared in Book III of Pope Gregory I’s Dialogues. The Dialogues, of course, contained the complete Life of St. Benedict, taking up all of Book II of Gregory’s work. Isaac, by virtue of appearing in the Dialogues became attached to Benedict and his champion Pope Gregory.

This was a common and important association for the

dissemination of Isaac’s text in the later Middle Ages. For example, one of the Catalan manuscripts of the De religione owned by Puig de Pollença was bound with the Dialogues. Often, excerpts of Isaac’s story from the Dialogues would be included along with the De religione, as seen in an Italian fifteenth-century translation of the text.113 Cardinal Niccolò Albergati’s (1375-1443) manuscript of the De religione contained an illustrated association between Isaac and Gregory in an elegant fourteen-line illumination of Gregory I giving his Dialogues to two monks at the head of Isaac’s text (Illustration VII.13.). Under this image is a spectacular illuminated seven-line initial “A” showing Isaac praying in the desert. If one did not pick up on the visual association, the rubricator reminded the reader that “Here begins Isaac’s De perfectione contemplationis, about whom Blessed Gregory, admiring his holy teachings, wrote in Chapter Fourteen in the third book of his Dialogues.”114 113

Alessandro Mortara, ed., Catalogo dei manoscritti italiani che sotto la denominazione di codici Canonicani italici si conservano nella Biblioteca Bodleiana a Oxford (Oxford: Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1864), #163, cols. 170-171. 114

“Incipit ysaac de contemplationis perfectione, de quo sancta et admiranda scribit beatus Gregorius libro tertio dyalogorum capitulo. xiiiio.” Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Typ 146, fol. 90r. Roger Weick, Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, 1350-1525, in the Houghton Library (Cambridge, MA: Department of Print and Graphic Arts, Harvard College Library, 1983), 125.

287

Illustration VII. 13. De perfectione contemplationis, fol. 90r.

Ultimately, the importance of book format, images and language all rested on one basic choice. Of the hundreds of religious works available to Jiménez de Cisneros, the Benedictine prior chose Isaac of Nineveh’s De ordinacione anime as the first manual of religious instruction printed for the reformed community of Montserrat. From the congregational perspective, printing Isaac of Nineveh’s treatise was a poor decision. His writings were rare, existing in only a few manuscripts and the one printed book published by Hurus. It was more logical for Jiménez de Cisneros to choose one of the vernacular translations or Latin texts from the more traditional writings on the eremitic life directly associated with the Benedictines, such as John Cassian, Jerome, William of St. Thierry, or the Sayings of the Desert Fathers to name a few.115 Manuscript versions of Gregory the Great’s Life of Saint Benedict and the Rule of Saint Benedict 115

Monks from Santa Giustina promoted the reading of spiritual texts, such as the Rule, to allow the entire community to share a common text when read at the reforty or in chapter. Barry Collet, Italian Benedictine Scholars of the Reformation: The Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua (Oxford: Oxfored University Press, 1985) 52.

288

existed in Catalan and Castilian translations at this time, with the latter bound with the Vallisoletano ceremonials brought with the reformers to Montserrat. These texts could have been easily printed for the monastery. In fact, the exclusion of Gregory’s seems odd given that its vernacular version would be read during chapter.116 Jiménez de Cisneros in the end chose to print Isaac of Nineveh as the text now belonged to the cultural history of the hermits through Boyl’s translation of the text in 1484. Using a text specifically associated with the hermits supported their local religious traditions just as he incorporated some of the traditional customs into the new constitutions.

Like Mombaer’s

modification of the ascetical exercises in the Rosarium hortulus, Jiménez de Cisneros catered to the traditions of the local community in publishing the De ordinacione while implementing outside religious practices and reforms.

It was a brilliant move for a monastic superior

consumed with uniting the community into one body. Printing Isaac’s text before all others allowed the hermits to influence the monastic community by adding their own readings to the curriculum of the monastery while at the same time validating their own religious traditions. The Benedictine prior ingenuously used Isaac’s importance to the eremitic community as a means to assuage any fears of the loss of their traditions as they now professed as monks and carried out their novitiate in the monastery. However, this was not limited to the hermits. The cloistered monks now became “hermits” of Montserrat by reading a text with an important history in the eremitic community. The use of Isaac’s text not only joined the hermitage to the monastery, it also unified the monastery to the hermitage to create a single community formed around the common reading of a text tied directly to the history of Montserrat.

116

“Omelie beati Gregorii in vulgari.” “Costumbres y cerimonias del monasterio,” c. 48, 721-722; Plenkers, “Un manuscrit,” 371.

289

Conclusion When we look at the role of the size of the book, the font, woodcuts, and glosses, we can see how Jiménez de Cisneros saw a relationship between the construction of the book and the use of authority to implement his reforms at Montserrat. The whole book, and not one aspect of the object, set the stage for the present readings done by each member in the community by fixing a uniform set images, marginalia, text and layout onto the page through the use of the printing press. His experience with language, combined with his use of the conventions of printed text, aids the monk’s reading of the visual page, in such a way that the visual text is “apprehended by a reader as part of the process of reading itself.”117 His interest in book design, his support for the bilingual education, his interest in valuing the local traditions, all created cohesion at Montserrat based on reading a uniform book.

117

M.B. Parkes, “Reading, Copying and Interpreting a Text in the Early Middle Ages,” in A History of Reading in the West, edited by Roger Chartier and Guglielmo Cavallo and translated by Lydia Cochrane (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 101-102.

290

CONCLUSION In the winter of 1503, upon returning from his weekly chapter with the vicar, the hermit entered his cell of La Santa Trinidat contemplating which book he would choose to begin his spiritual exercise of writing. Copying was a pleasure of his, so the choice would not be easy. He had before him on his shelf a collection of books printed only a few years earlier by his Abbot García Jiménez de Cisneros. It was some time since he had lived in the monastery, so he was not present when the abbot engaged in this wondrous printing enterprise; three thousand books to be shared by his brothers across the congregation. He admired the uniform way they gathered on the shelf, responding to each other in conversation as he had once done with his own brothers during his time as a novice. Equal in size and covered with the same calfskin, he wondered if a brother in distant Valladolid was now taking a book off the shelf for his own meditation. The hermit pulled out the Rule of Saint Benedict, and seeing the woodcut of the Virgin, he knew at least that the woodcut would lead his imagined brother to the mountain as he settled into his own reading and meditation. The hermit did not choose the Rule. He preferred an older printed book: one similar in size, but different in history. His abbot printed it a few years earlier, when he ascended the mountain and began his reforms. The recluse, now at this leisure after a brief prayer, opened up the worn pages. Seeing the Virgin and the Crucifixion, he decided on the simplicity of Abba Isaac to accompany him during his writing. He felt comforted knowing that not only Isaac, but

291

his current abbot’s advice, so carefully set in the margins, would guide his reading and settle his mind at moments of doubt. On choosing the book, however, he turned and faced another shelf, where manuscripts and other printed books of various sizes poked up and down like the serrated peaks outside his door. They stood together as a community, but different and independent. Each book seemingly selected its own space to occupy among the group. The hermit looked at these books, not choosing one, but two.

The first was an old manuscript, quarto in size and filled with

miscellaneous, but salutary wisdom on the eremitic life. The manuscript contained Isaac’s text too. This one truly belonged in the hermitage. Inside he found the elegant humanistic script of the venerable Bernat Boyl moving across the page, perhaps as the old hermit had done when he left La Trinidat to sail west across the ocean. As he picked up the second book, a printed book, and turned to the last folio of the text, he saw the colophon “This little book was finished at Sant Cugat del Vallès on 29 November 1489.” There was a little smile while thinking about how such a mistake could be made despite the promises of the accuracy of the printing press. He took all three books, and went to his desk to begin copying the text as so many had done before in his small little cell. I was a notary too, he thought, and began writing in his own humanistic script learned in the court of Naples some time ago. Ending with Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795 is a proper way to conclude this dissertation. The small quarto volume has within it the history unfolded though the course of these pages. When he wrote the book as a spiritual exercise, the hermit (at least I like to believe so) had before him both the original manuscript (or at least a copy) that Boyl had completed in the winter of 1484. He also had before him the 1489 edition printed by Hurus at distant Zaragoza. Both books were used by the scribe, bringing together the disparate rationale 292

behind their production in 1484 and 1489. At the same time, the scribe mirrored the practices in the Gumiel’s edition commissioned by Jiménez de Cisneros in 1497. He placed his glosses in the margin, keeping them neat and uniform on the page. They were distinct glosses, to be sure, but they were the practice encouraged by Jiménez de Cisneros when he printed the text in 1497. The unknown scribe understood that writing remained the spiritual exercise best suited for the contemplative life. The continuation of this practice is a reminder that manuscript culture was not distinct from print culture during this period. The press was just a new way of writing to reproduce the manuscript text on the printed page. The fact that each aspect of the reform from Boyl to Jiménez de Cisneros had endured through the early sixteenth century perhaps is a testament to the difficult, but eventually successful process of turning those independent lay hermits into the famous monk-hermits in the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid. The process of reform at Montserrat was certainly not easy, not for the king, not for Boyl, not for Jiménez de Cisneros, and least of all for the hermits. In many ways, the reform of the absentee Abbot Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere in 1476 proved to be the easiest of the three to implement. The cardinal, despite his absence, or perhaps because of it, reinforced the traditions of the hermits while promoting their independence from monastery. He kept their lay status, allowed them their possessions, and did not restrict their movement. He placed his reform within the interest of Franciscan Observantine eremiticism, granting them control over their spiritual discipline while creating an equal share in government. This all supported their contemplative life on the mountain. It ensured, despite their continued association with the monastery, the ability to maintain their identity as independent lay hermits. It was a restoration, in many ways, of the traditions that had emerged at the community from the time before the erection of the priory in the eleventh century. 293

Fernando II had different motives. To be sure, he was not interested in changing the constitutions of the hermits. If anything, he wanted traditions maintained. He would not, however, allow the Virgin of Montserrat to be cared for by hermits and monks who did not follow strict Observance. It did not matter whether or not the hermits were leading a good life; what mattered was the life of Observance demanded by the king. He certainly had both the political savvy and patience to carry out his reforms. However, he also expected obedience and not the resistance offered by a group of recalcitrant solitaries on the mountain. He fortunately had money and loyal subjects to aid his reform. Using the recent conversion of Bernat Boyl, he placed the energetic former secretary within the hermitage to begin the reform until his favorite Joan de Peralta became abbot. Boyl, however, had problems. His appointment by Fernando II as superior of the hermits was suspect and his reforms unwanted. His zealous nature alienated the community, even drawing a polite rebuke from the king. Still, some hermits rebelled and abandoned the mountain. Others remained to see how things would unfold. Here, Boyl drew on the traditions of pastoral care and his own knowledge of rhetoric to help create peace in the community. He had at his disposal his own spiritual guide in Isaac of Nineveh, who had accompanied him in the De religione when he arrived at Montserrat. Listening to his brothers, he provided them with a translation the De religione to provide access to his teachings and experience. Boyl used the text, the translation, and the manuscript he provided to the hermits to foster community and assert his authority. He was not alone in these efforts, but drew on nearly two hundred years of tradition that had seen Isaac’s De religione as an Observantine model of eremiticism in the Kingdoms of Aragón. It did not take much for him to turn this vision begun at Montserrat to the church as a whole. Encouraged by his friend Archpriest Pedro Zapata, he sent his translation to be printed 294

out of friendship and the concern for the reform of the church. The king’s desire to have Montserrat serve as the model for religious life in his realm began to take shape. Unfortunately for the king, the reform did not. Ten years would pass before Fernando II could introduce Benedictine Observance at Montserrat.

Periodic rebellions by the hermits and the monks and the refusal of the

Congregation of Santa Giustina de Padua and the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid to aid the reforms frustrated the king. By 1492, the king’s patience had grown thin. He had conquered Granada and expelled the Jews from Spain. He was in the process of securing the peace with France and had the faint hope that the Italian mariner Cristóbal Colón would bring some news of profit from the East. It was the time for the king and his wife Isabel to unify the Spanish Kingdoms around the strict religious observance that guided their own lives as it had with their family. With the failed assassination attempt at Barcelona in December, the king would no longer wait to have the monastery reformed, as it was the Virgin of Montserrat who had come to his aid and deflected the dagger from his heart. The king succumbed and gave into the demands of the Congregation of San Benito de Valladolid. With this, the royal desire to reform Montserrat according to Observance became a reality. When the Congregation of Valladolid arrived in 1493, they faced more challenges than did Boyl. They did not know the customs and the language, and they brought with them new rules and ceremonials built on a sense of uniformity and obedience not found previously at Montserrat.

The eclectic mountain, with its hermits and monks living within their own

traditions, posed a serious obstacle for the reformers given their insistence on uniformity within the congregation.

295

The new prior, García Jiménez de Cisneros, immediately began the long sought after reforms. The hermits understood the danger and employed a traditional legal method to avoid becoming monks and losing their traditions. Before the new monks could act, the hermits demanded an agreement (capitulatión) protecting their rights and preserving their traditions. The reformers’ magnanimous acquiesce to the hermits’ demands quickly faded, and within six months the centuries’ old traditions largely disappeared. Cast as anti-social and unnatural in their organization, Jiménez de Cisneros professed the right to impose new customs to create a unified rule and order between the monastery and the hermits. Certain traditions were retained. However, the reforms were radical, not moderate. The independent lay hermits either left or were absorbed as monks within the Congregation of Valladolid. Jiménez de Cisneros’ challenges were in many ways greater than Boyl’s.

Cultural

differences, new customs and ceremonials, and the incorporation of the hermits into the monastery all stood between him and the completion of his reforms. Perhaps because of the diversity of these challenges, the new prior combined current and past reform traditions at Montserrat. More than Boyl, Jiménez de Cisneros saw his actions as part of a universal monastic reform within the church. For this reason, he easily accepted the wisdom and methods employed by the Dutch reformers he encountered in France during his embassy in 1496.

In his

conversations with Mombaer or other Dutch reformers, the prior learned the value of the printing press as an agent for reform. The design of the page, images and concern for the font all went hand in hand with the desire to create a uniform book read in common by both the monks and hermits of Montserrat.

296

When Jiménez de Cisneros returned to Montserrat, he brought these new reform methods with him. He also drew on his experience in respecting local traditions to create a measure of stability in the community. Jiménez de Cisneros chose the new association between Isaac of Nineveh and Montserrat so creatively developed by Boyl during his reforms. It was a choice made by a superior seeking to find unity between the new reformers and the old traditions at Montserrat. Special care was therefore found at all levels of producing the book.

Following the methods of the Dutch

reformers, Jiménez de Cisneros commissioned a small format book to be used in both the monastery and the hermitage. He augmented the positive aspects of bilingualism by printing the Latin text in 1497 and using the printed translation published by Hurus in 1489. Glosses were inserted to guide the hermits when reading the text, while fonts were chosen to facilitate the reading of the book. Artful woodcuts of the Crucifixion scene and the shield of Montserrat reminded the hermits of their path in spiritual progress and their membership in the community. Mirroring this spiritual union, Jiménez de Cisneros chose Isaac for his relationship with Saint Benedict as much as with the abba’s relationship with Montserrat. In each case, the prior constructed a book of religious instruction that helped the hermit adjust to the new constitutions and ceremonials, while at the same time asserting his authority over the recluses on the mountain through the control over the publication, glosses, and design of the book. The prior’s rationale behind these decisions were not too different from Boyl’s, except for one important change. Jiménez de Cisneros decided to use printed books to be possessed by each monk and hermit within the monastery to create a sense of uniformity that transcended the space between the summit and the monastery in the interest of social and contemplative peace.

297

This small group of hermits has much to say about the Middle Ages for modern students of medieval history. Despite their small numbers, the history of Montserrat’s hermits dispels several myths about the medieval Spanish Kingdoms and open doors for new areas of study. This dissertation hopefully provides one more example to end and dispense with the tired, twentiethcentury notion that “Éspaña es differente.” Each aspect of this dissertation demonstrates the commonality that the reform of Montserrat had with the rest of Europe, not its distinction. Politically, the role of the commendam abbacy as both a political benefice and a reform tool occurred throughout Europe. Fernando II engaged with Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Popes Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII and Alexander VI as any other European monarch interested in both reform and political advantage.

His purchasing of the independence of Montserrat, his

subsequent bribe to place Abbot de Peralta in the Bishopric of Vic and his willingness to swap one commendam abbacy for another did not differ from other monarchs. Similarly, Fernando’s political maneuvers in no way diminished his piety, whatever we may think as modern scholars. It was not just patience or the desire to secure Montserrat as a royal redoubt near Barcelona that led the monarch (and his father) to fight nearly twenty years to place Montserrat under Observance. His nemesis, Charles VIII of France, outlined similar programs for France, even fostering those at Paris under Jean Mombaer and Jean Standonck. What differed was not the Aragonese interest in Observantine Benedictine reform. That saw earlier, dynamic efforts in Europe. What differed was the king’s tenacity and ability to concentrate on the religious reforms of his kingdoms as he secured the borders within the peninsula. Even the king’s desire to equate Montserrat’s reform with success in Granada should not be overstated. Reforming monasteries and the church had served in parallel with the European call for crusade since the eleventh century. 298

We should also disregard the notion that the religious intuitions in the Spanish Kingdoms were isolated, conservative islands within a Europe progressing in some natural way towards the Reformation. The reformers at Montserrat, like other orders in the peninsula, were as much at the forefront of reform as the Low Countries, the many city-states and kingdoms of Italy, and the German Empire. Bilingual spiritual primers were promoted not only as beneficial to monks, but also to the church at large. Boyl and Jiménez de Cisneros both advocated reading in the vernacular, and the powerful archpriest and friend of Boyl, Pedro Zapata, commissioned the printed translation of the De religione for the reform of the church. Similarly, the call for Benedictine Observance within the Spanish Kingdoms did not originate outside the peninsula, but grew in tandem with the growing desire for a stricter, more authentic, apostolic religious experience that continued to resurface throughout the Middle Ages. Even reading Isaac of Nineveh was an international phenomenon, not one particular to Montserrat or the realms of Isabel and Fernando II. One might wish to argue that the importance of using the printing press at Montserrat came directly from the Dutch reformers, thus showing backwardness at a time when monasteries in Germany, the Low Countries, and Italy had been printing for several decades. I have argued in favor of this theory to an extent. What has gone unacknowledged are the rapid innovations employed by García Jimenez de Cisneros not found in other European monasteries. Not only did the prior print uniform bilingual books for his brothers. He was the first to do so using individual copies designed to follow an internal curriculum of spiritual progress and religious formation from novice monk to the seasoned hermit. What remains to be examined is how this new view of printing was exported to Europe, rather than keeping our eyes focused on the southern side of the Pyrenees. The reform of the hermits was international. It was also unique and progressive owing to its own circumstances and vision of its reformers. 299

Though the Constitutiones haeremitarum required modifications in 1499, the success of the reforms extended until the declaustration of the religious communities in Spain during the nineteenth century. It is of little wonder that two of the leading sixteenth-century Catholic reformers in the Spanish Kingdoms began in part at Montserrat, Ignatius ascending the mountain and Teresa de Ávila reading Jiménez de Cisneros’ Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual, adorned with its woodcut of the Virgin of Montserrat, in the solitude of her monastic cell.

300

APPENDIX ONE Catalogue Description of Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795 Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795 Catalunya [Montserrat?], c. 1490-1510. Devotional miscellany consisting of 4 parts, all of paper. Nineteenth-century binding. I Contents: 1. fols. 2r-123r “[E]LL ALMA que a dios ama, en dios solamente siente reposo ... Al qual sea honor virtut y gloria para siempre jamas Amen. Ffinitus hic libellus apud sanctum Cucufatum Vallis Aretane, xiii februari anni domini MCCCCLXXXIIII.” Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, translated by Bernat Boyl (San Cugat del Vallés [Zaragoza]: [Iohann Hurus], 29 November 1489?. Physical Characteristics: Paper, trimmed to 140 x 205 mm., 124 fols.: Quires 116+1 + 216 + 31 + 41 + 514+1 + 614+1 + 716 + 816 + 916 + 1010+1. Mis-collation due to rebinding in nineteenth century. fol. 33v has catchward for fol. 36r. fols. 34-35 originally placed between fols. 50 and 51 (e.g. 50 – 34 – 35 - 51). It is difficult to determine how these singletons are attached to the quires. Watermark: Main, similar to Briquet 10745 and 10746 and Likhachev I: 1308 and II: 167 (identical to contents in II, below) Frame ruled in pencil, 90 X 135 mm. Single column text, twenty to twenty-two lines. Text executed in brown ink. Text completed in a refined, elegant and careful Aragonese-humanist semi-cursive script reflecting court chancery usage. Initials missing, but guide letters present. Horizontal catchwords in lower margin. Marginalia throughout in the same script as the text. Punctuation virgule, colon, and punctus. Modern foliation in pencil. Modern blue ball point pen foliation differs from pencil (119 ink = 123 pencil). fol. 1 is a singleton attached as a guard page, and is foliated as 1. Originally, the text was blank. fol. 1r has a seventeenth-century hand identifying the provenance of the book when acquired by Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar. The hand is probably that of Diego de Santana, librarian of the Conde de Gondomar. : “De Diego Ruiz de Ledesma.” fol. 1r has catalogue information from the other librarian of the Conde de Gondomar, Etienne Eussem (see Provenance, below): “Contenta Reverendo Frai Buil o REmond Lull dela vida contemplativua. Tratado dela oracion mental. Tractuas de missa sacrificio. Art de Saber bien morir. fol. 1r has the catologue information from the 1775 inventory of the library: “Sal. 3. en 17 Cax. 4.” Title provided on fol. 2r by a late sixteenth- early seventeenth-century hand: “Comienca el libro del reverendo frai buil: de vita contemplatiua.” fol. 1v. blank. fols. 123v-124v ruled but blank.

301

II Contents: 2. fols. 125r-132v “De oracio mental. In nomine dei patris & filii ac spiritus sancti. A Correcion de santa madre ysglesia, e alohor y gloria de nuestro Senyor dios, e a illumi[na]cion de nuestras animas Amen. Algunas personas a mi tienen demandado la mia intencion sobre oracion mental ... Acabada es aquesta pequenya a correcion de todos aquellos que mejor entienden que yo, e honor y gloria de nuestro senyor ihesus xpisto e a illuminacion delas animas nuestras sea, amen.” 3. fols. 133r-141r “Practica de oracio mental. A requesta(^s) e affectuosas rogarias de algunas personas deuotas, e religiosas, e alohor yglesia de nuestro senyor ihesu xpisto e a illuminacion delas nuestras animas. Aqui comienco vna poca de introducion e doctrina ho pratica de contemplar e pregar e loar dios nuestro senyor tal como el por su misericordia me quesido dar e todos dias da ... Acabada es aquesta pequenya obra gracias (^a) a nuestro Senyor (^ihesus xpisto) dios padre, e fijo e spiritu sancto, el qual nos quiera dar fuerca virtut, e gracia de conplir daqui a delante todos los dias de nuestra vida ha lohor e gloria del su sancto e glorioso nombre, e segunt la suya sancta voluntat Amen.” 4. fols. 141r-145v “Dela vida ermitanya. Aqui comienca vn pequenyo tractado sobre la vida ermitanya tal como dios por su clemencia, e summa bondat lo me ha quesido dar asentir y entender ... E roguemos al buen pastor que los quiera conseruar perdurablement enel su sancto corral, e que aquellos qui no hi son los quiera conuertir, e dar verdadera conoxença de sus fallicimientos, affin que todos en semble podamos lohar, e bendezir, el su sancto e glorioso nombre, e seruar la suya sancta ley segunt la sancta voluntat por todos tiempos, amen.” 5. fols. 145v-154r “De Caritate. Dominus dicit in euangelio. Maiorem hanc caritatem nemo habit, quam animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis [John 15:13] ... Is et enim vere est et non ex parte perfectus est quiet in heremo scalorem solitudinis, et in cenobio infirmitates fratrum equali magnanimitate susten(^d)tat.” 6. fols. 154v-164v “Incipit liber sancti Agustini episcopi de conflictu viciorum, Et machina virtutum. Apostolica uox clamat per orbem atque in procinctu fidei positis ne securitate torpeant ... Ut ergo superare in conflictu possis carnis, desideria calcato et propicio Christo uictor dyaboli existens, amen.” CCCM 27B, 909-931; PL 17, 1149-1168; PL 83, 1131-1141. Compare El Escorial, Biblioteca del Real Monasterior de el Escorial, MS A.IV.9 for similar text paired with article (7), below. Compare Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 8744 for a similar text paired with article (7), below. 7. fols. 165r-183r “Libro llamado Miseria humana fecho por el glorioso monsenyor Sant Bernat. [Prologue] Como cada vno creado, e posado en aquesta mortal vida deua entender e mirar que no sea dicho del aquello que es propheteado por el propheta dauid psalmo xlviii, diziendo: homo cum in honore esset non intellexit se et cetera ... [Text incipit rubricated title] Meditacion de sant bernart. O hombre mesquino atiende que eres ni que fueste antes que nascieste ... et dominancium que por los tiempos uos sea dada gloria y honor, qui uiuis et regnas cum Deo patre in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus per infinita secula seculorum, amen.” Latin text in PL 158, 1051 (Ps. Anselm); PL 184, 1109 (Ps. Bernard). Compare El Escorial, Biblioteca del Real Monasterior de el Escorial, MS A.IV.9 for similar text paired with article (6), above. Compare Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 8744 for a similar text paired with article (6), above. Compare Barcelona, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 148 for a similar text in Catalan paired with article (11), below.

302

Physical Characteristics: Paper, trimmed to 140 x 205 mm., 61fols.: Quires 1112+1 + 1212 + 1312 + 1412 + 1512 Watermark: Main, similar to Briquet 10745 and 10746 and Likhachev I: 1308 and II: 167; Ciseaux, similar to Briquet 3739 and 3744, especially 3746 and 3749. Likhachev, I: 3387 and II: 397; Cruche (jug), unidentified. Frame ruled in pencil, 90 -113 X 160 mm. Text bound by one or two lines on spine, and one on fore edge. Single column text, 34-41 lines. Written in black ink by a single scribe using a rounded semi-cursive GothicItalica script common to the Aragonese kingdoms (Thomson, Latin Bookhands, #131 and #132 for capital letters; Kirchner, Scriptura Latina, #51a). Initials in red and blue Lombards and also standard majuscule. Paraphs in red and blue, sometimes alternating. Titles centered and in red. Rubricated subheading center justified. Marginal notes using rubrics appear in the same script as the scribe that identify scripture citations (2), florilegia (5), and standard points of interest. Horizontal catchword in lower margin. Emendations by scribe within the text. Notabenes in margin in both contemporary and later scripts. Trimmed and complete signatures in rubric. Modern foliation in pencil. Modern blue ball point pen foliation differs from pencil (fols. 121, 142, 143, 162 and 183 in ink = fols. 125, 145, 146, 165 and 183 in pencil). Folio 125r, has title by Etienne Eussem under medieval title: “Dela oracion mental.” Last leaf of quire 11 attached as singleton. Text ends early on fols. 154r and 164v and 183v, remaining space blank. fol. 183r contains a curious prayer that seems to be written in the same hand as the scribe. The prayer is in rubric: “Mater Dei memento mei, ihesus est amor meus. Qui dixerit ista verba vidiendo imaginem beatissimam et purissimam virginem mariam lucrabitur centum uiginti duo milia annorum indulgencia. Hoc reperies scriptum in ecclesia beati paeri Rome. Omnis virtus te decorat. Omnis sanctus te honorat. In celesti patria Amen, et dicatur Aue maria.” fol. 183v contains a reproach to the above prayer in a later but contemporary script: “Presumptusos qui por quales quam cerimonias e otros mal recaudos de penitentcias que fara cuydan hauer.” fol. 184rv, blank.

III Contents: 8. fols. 186r-205r “In nomine domini nostri ihesu amen. Exigis a me frater dilecte in domino circa officium misse aliqua tibi…et sic cum adest dominus in sacro omne morticinum remouendum est, deo gracias.” Rothschild, J.P., Bibliographie annuelle du Moyen Age tardif 5 (1995): n. 2733. 9. fols. 205v-211v “Sepcies in die laudem dixi tibi quamuis deus semper et omni tempore sit laudandus, & benedicendus congruis tantum horis ab ecclesia ... qui septem oras cotidie deo persoluerit vitam beatam obtinebit quam nobis concedat patrem et filius et spiritus sanctus Amen.” No title provided in text. No modern edition. Text in Latin. Zumkeller, Adolar. Manuskripte von Werken der Autoren des Augustiner-Eremitenordens in mitteleuropäischen Bibliotheken. Wuerzburg: 1966. n. 384. Physical Characteristics: Paper, trimmed to 140 x 205 mm., 26fols.: Quire 1626. Watermark: undetermined. Unruled, [Verify] mm. Script in black ink. Rounded Gothic semi-cursive script with humanist traits (Kirchner, Scriptura Latina, #48a) . Initials in red Lombards and standard script. Paraphs in red. Line fillers in red. Marginalia in script of primary scribe. Notabenes and text underlining in later script. Trimmed and

303

complete medieval foliation in Roman numerals appears in red on 186r-211r = I – XV. Modern foliation in pencil. fol. 185r guard page with seventeenth century-script of Etienne Eussem providing title: “Tract. de missa.” fol. 185v Etienne Eussem provides title: “Tractatus de Sacrificio missae.” fol. 185v Unidentified sixteenth-century script inserts “Tamen” at top of page. fol. 205r The same sixteenth-century script as fol. 185v inserts “amen” after “deo gracias.” fol. 211v contains an excerpt from Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux’s Meditationes de humana conditione written as a supplement to the main text: Incipit: “Cum fueris ad orandum uel psallendum in ecclesia cogitacionum fluctuancium tu multum exitius relinquem curamque omnium exteriorium ... hec Bernardus in meditacionibus tractus de Corpore Christi et de oris dicendis ad laudem Dei. Explicit amen.” See, PL 184, col. 495c. fol. 211 margin restored.

IV Contents: 10. fol. 212v and 237rv “(^Primerament deue ha) Primerament deue hauer Agua beneditta e muchas uezes derramarne en la canbra demande si tienen gratia indulgencia ... Quando conoscera que entra enla agonia e comienca atirar lea si puede las sobre dichas oraciones e deuociones. Empero si veye que se cuyta muy mucho, e quiere render el spiritu parese, e de continent diga alto el Credo menorum, e el credo mayor el quicumque vult silo sabe, e muchas de vezes. Credo in sanctam (^madre) matrem ecclesiam, e el nombre de ihesus, e enel mas ultimo espirament, diga dirupiste domine (^domine) vincula mea In manus tuas domine. Libera eum virgo gloriossima maria et tu bone angelorum custos cum michael archangelo et cum exercitu angelorum Amen. Amen.” 11. fols. 213r-236v “Comienca el trattado que se llama art de saber bien morir enpero deue se auisar el que lo leira al enfermo que no lo lia todo en vna vegada, mas a estondadas e yaze bien mientes si deue comencar al principio o al medio a ala fin segunt vera la afeccion ela disposicion del enffermo, e la manera y el spacio del tiempo o la cuyta dela enffermedat o malaltia hoc encara segunt vera las materias mas dispuestas e mas conuenientes al enfermo segunt su condicion e ala mas necessidat dela anima. Por testimonio dela sancta scriptura e por exenplos e practica se demuestra seyer cosa muy util e necessaria alas personas posadas enel passo dela muert, e enel traspasamiento de aquesta vida que sean bien informadas ayudadas, e confortadas e aparelladas e trobadas en buen stamiento ... In manus tuas domine, libera eum virgo gloriossima maria et tu bone angelorum custos cum michaele archangelo et cum exercitu angelorum Amen. [later hand gives a second “Amen”].” Fàbrega i Grau, Ángel. “Els primitius textos catalans de l’Art de ben morir.” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 28 (1955): 85-92. Paper, trimmed to 140 x 205 mm., 26fols.: Quire 1726. Watermark: undetermined. Mis-collation due to rebinding in nineteenth century. fol. 237 originally placed after between fols. 212 and 213. Unruled, [Verify] mm. Single column text, 29-34 lines. Two distinct scripts for articles (10) and (11). Both rounded Gothic semi-cursive script with humanist traits (Kirchner, Scriptura Latina, #48a). Both articles have emendations in text by scribes. Trimmed and intact medieval foliation in Roman numerals in rubric fols. 212 - 237 = I - XXVI. Modern foliation in pencil. Article (10) seems to have been completed on the blank spaces of the original guard pages protecting the text of article (11). For article (11): Initials using Lombards in red. Subheadings in red. Paraphs in red. Line fillers in red. Marginalia in script of scribe, including references of texts. Additional descending flourishes. fol. 212r is a guard page with the phrase “Ihesus Christo. Delectare in domino et dabit tibi peticionis cordis tui [Ps. 36:4]” in the same script as article (11). fol. 212r. Etienne Eussem provides the title: “Art de saber bien morir.” fol. 212 margin restored. Binding: Nineteenth-century binding in light brown leather over boards. Binding has gilded edges for paper and a gilded

304

spine title: “BUIL. VIDA CONTEMPLAT Y OTROS TRATADOS MS.” Marbled paper used as pastedowns, and affixed by glue to flyleaves. Front pastedown has a royal Ex Libris: “Ex libris Biblioteca del rey n. Señor, N-Y-3.” A paper stamp with the number “795” is affixed in the lower left corner of the ex libris stamp. Flyleaves in nineteenth-century paper. Verso of front flyleaf has old catalogue number “II-G6” and the phrase “Contiene 237 folios” in pencil in the hand of Ramón Menéndez Pidal. This is the hand of the modern foliation in pencil throughout the manuscript. Rear flyleaf is blank. Provenance: Written by at least five distinct scribes between 1490 and 1510 as dated by the watermark evidence. Manuscript completed in the Kingdoms of Aragón, likely at Santa María de Montserrat. The separate parts gathered together as a unit during the sixteenth century. It is possible that the “Tamen” on fol. 185rv in article (8) consists of a note to the binder to include the quire in the final gatherings of the codex. Text acquired by Diego (Iacobo) Ruíz de Ledesma (1520-1575), a notable Jesuit theologian. Born in Cuéllar, Diego studied at Alcalá, Paris and Louvaine. Although he published several works, he is most famous for Doctrina Cristiana, del modo de catequizar (Venice: Miguel Tremezzino, 1569). Constanza de Acuña purchased the manuscript for the library of her husband Diego Saramiento de Acuña, the Conde-Duque de Gondomar (1567-1626). This library was located in Valladolid, and known as the Casa del Sol. Constanza advised her husband of the purchase in a letter sent on 5 December 1619 from Madrid to Valladolid (Correspondencia del Conde de Gondomar, III: #11485, p. 200): “Envía también un manuscrito de Diego Ruíz de Ledesma y otro que procede del secretario Bartolomé Aguilar de Anaya.” There are several letters between the Conde-Duque de Gondomar and a Juan Ruíz de Ledesma, a secretary in Madrid and possible source for the manuscript. Need to verify if the inventory of the library composed by Etienne Eussem and Enrique Teller (Henry Taylor), and completed in April 1623, contains the manuscript. Eussem worked with Diego de Santana as the librarian in Valladolid in 1619 and 1620. Their worked consisted of ordering the library and providing a new inventory. This inventory was completed by Enrique Teller, who followed Eussem as librarian in 1622. This inventory is now preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid (Mss. 13593-13594.). In 1775, the library provided the first catalogue number found in the manuscript “Sal. 3. en 17 Cax. 4” (see article (1), above). The manuscript passed into the Spanish Royal Library at Madrid in 1806, when King Carlos IV (1788-1808) claimed the library of the Conde-Duque. Although the royal library rebound the codex sometime during the nineteenth century, the rebinding does not seem to have changed the arrangement of the volume in which it was finally gathered during the sixteenth century. First catalogued in the royal library as “N-Y-3” and later “II-G-6” (see Binding, above). The nineteenth century card catalogue writes: “Quizá este Boil es Fr. Bernardo Boil sacerdote, hermitaño y religioso del monasterio de Montserrate en Cataluña que floreció en el siglo XV, y es quien lectors a tiene por aragonés, aunque no lo afirma con certeza.” Modern foliation in pencil completed by Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Source of the blue foliation in ball point pen uncertain. The modern printed catalogue mis-identifies article (1) as the work of Ramón Llull and fails to identify article (2) as a separate work.

305

APPENDIX TWO Catalogue Description of Iohann Hurus’ 1489 Edition of the De religione Isaac of Nineveh. De religione. Translated by Bernat Boyl. San Cugat del Vallés [Zaragoza]: [Iohann Hurus], 19 November 1489? Contents: 1. fol. 1r. (ai) “Ysaac de religione.” 2. fols. 2r-10v “Prologo. Al venerable y muy virtuoso varon, mossen Pedro çapata Arcipreste de Daroca. El pobre de virtudes fray Bernal boyl indigno sacerdote hermitanyo delas montanyas de nuestra señora de Monserrate salut & acrescentamiento de virtudes en aquel que es verdadera salut ... conla qual enel exercicio delas virtudes nos esforçemos de tal manera obedecer y seruir le, que si no lo pudieremos boluer mejores almas que nos dio: Alomenos gelas boluamos tan buenas.” Fita, Fidel. “Escritos de fray Bernal Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 268-275. 3. fols. 11r-12v

“Aquestos son los capitulos delas cosas que eneste libro llamado Abbat ysach se tratan, Aunque en cada vno muchas cosas se contienen, y mas por menudo ... Dela fable dela honestidat, y compostura dela conuersacion del religioso lx.” Fita, Fidel. “Escritos de fray Bernal Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 275-277. 3. fol. 13r. “Ysaac de religione.” 4. fols. 14r-192r “ELl alma que a dios ama: en dios solamente siente reposo ... Al qual sea honor virtut, y gloria para siempre jamas. Amen.” 5. fol. 192r “Deo gracias. nouembris, Anni .d. M.ccccxxxix.”

Finitus hic libellus apud sanctum Cucufatum vallis Aretane. xxix,

Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio Real, MS II/795, fols. 2r-123r. Physical Characteristics: Paper, 40., 192 ff.: Signatures A8 + B4 + a-s8 + t10. Watermark: Hand with star, unidentified. Printed, double sided. Single column text, 21-22 lines per page. Black ink only. Gothic lettering, one size (Haebler, Geschichte des spanischen, figure #289: Type 3). Minor initials by woodcut block, incomplete with no guide letters (Ibid., figure #299). Major initials by woodcut block, (Ibid., figure #304). Punctuation virgule, colon, punctus, and hyphen. No foliation. No catchwords. Signatures in lower right hand margin. Preface and contents printed and collated after primary text. fol. 1v, blank. fol. 13v, blank.

306

APPENDIX THREE Catalogue Description of Diego de Gumiel’s 1497 Edition of the De ordinatione anime Isaac of Nineveh, Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtulis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes. Barcelona: Diego de Gumiel, 1497. Contents: 1. fol. 1r. (sign a1) “Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtilis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes.” 2. fols. 2r-148v. “Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtilis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes incipit. Anima qui deum diligit in deo solo quietem habit...Ipsi autem sit honor virtus et gloria: in secula seculorum. Amen.” 3. f. 148v. “Impressum Barchinone per Jacobum gumiel castellano. Anno M.cccc.lxxxxvii.” 4. fols. 149r-151r. “Liber abbatis ysaach de ordinatione anime valde vtilis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes. Capitulum primum/ de anima diligenti deum. a car. ii...Capi. xxxxi. sermo de honestate et compositione conuersationis religiosi. cxxxxv.” Physical Characteristics: Paper, 80., 152 fols.: Signatures a8 – t8. Signatures in lower right margin. No catchwords. Watermark: Undetermined Printed, double sided. Single column text, 21-22 lines per page. Printed foliation in upper right margin. Printed marginalia throughout. Black ink only. Gothic lettering, two sizes: main text and marginalia. One major 6 line initial “A” on f. 2r. Minor initials of 4 lines by woodblock throughout. Punctuation uses virgule, calderon, colon, punctus and hyphen. fol. 1v. Woodcut. Crucifixion Scene with Mary and John with the sun and moon on each side of the cross. fol. 1v. Woodcut. Swiss-style shield chéf dentelé emblazoned with the mountain of Montserrat cut by a saw. fol. 157v is blank.

307

APPENDIX FOUR

Bernat Boyl’s Letter to Archpriest Pedro Zapata1 [fol. 1r] Ysaac de religione [fol. 1v: blank] [fol. 2r] Prologo. Al venerable y muy virtuoso varon, mossen Pedro çapata Arcipreste de Daroca. El pobre de virtudes fray Bernal boyl indigno sacerdote hermitanyo delas montanyas de nuestra señora de Monserrate salut & acrescentamiento de virtudes en aquel que es verdadera salut. No desempara dios jamas a la nuestra flaqueza, ni por nuestras grandes cuplas dexa enlas necessidades y peligros mayores, sin buscar, ni pedir lo nosotros, offrecer y demostrar nos su ayuda. Porque quanto mayor haura sido la su bondat, y misericordia en llamar, y ayudar nos: tanto entonces quando fueremos de nuestras negligencias & rebeldia, accusados sea la nuestra escusacion menor, y la culpa

[fol. 2v] mas graue. Pedistes me senyor enlos dias passados, el nuestro Abbat ysach el qual yo por su marauillosa doctrina y ensenyança, a ruego de los padres, y hermanos desta nuestra montanya en

1

Isaac of Nineveh, De religione, translated by Bernat Boyl (Sant Cugat del Vallès [Zaragoza]: [Iohann Hurus], 29 November 1489), ff. 1r-10v.

308

el comienço de mi conuersion de latino hauia hecho Aragones, o si mas querres Castellano, no daquel mas apurado stilo dela corte, mas daquel llano que ala profession nuestra segun la gente, y tierra donde moramos paraque le entiendan satisfaze. Y pedistes lo segun veo paraque con vuestra industria y caridat la su prouechosa doctrina que fastaque por falta de traslados staua celada y encubierta con el marauilloso artificio dela enprenta publicada, con muy poca costa en manos delos que dessean allegarse a dios: en breue tiempo viniesse, alçamos las manos a dios hoyda vuestra peticion de tan-

[fol. 3r] ta caridat, y alabamos la su bondad que no cessa de contino proueer nos de su gracia, porque assi como no era yo sufficiente a tanto bien, assi no puedo en este prohemio callar el gozo que siente mi alma por tal nueua ni por mengua de ingenio como los siente dezillo. Ca si la sancta doctrina del glorioso padre no podia saluo a muy pocos por mengua de libros antes de ahora aprouechar, tanto es mayor de presente el beneficio y el merito por consiguiente, que se gana en publicar la, quantos mas seran aquellos que por la studiosa caridat vuestra seran alumbrados desta ensenyança. Por que assi como no siendo publicada su doctrina, y por esta causa poco o ningun fructo faziendo; era como si no fuesse a luz, no entonces quando se fizo, mas ahora que publicando se aprouecha, pode-

[fol. 3v] mos dezir hauer sydo fecha de nueuo. Porende si el galardon y paga deue de ser segun la obra y aquel entonces por su caridad componiendo este libro: gano gran merito, que podra sperar aquel por quien del fin porque se fizo a hora gozaran tantos. Mas porque nos dexemos ya de proseguir 309

con palabras lo que vos segun vuestra costumbre con sperança dela ganancia mayor no menos discreta que deuidamente desestimays, no se puede en breue compendio dezir, quan gloriosamente este sancto uiejo ysach a nuestra necessidat con su trabajo soccorrio y con su caridat proueyo. Ca no es pequenyo ellamor que enlas proprias affliciones y lloros delos agenos males se duele, y entre los sus gemidos delos nuestros se acuerda y con sus lagrimas a las nuestras consuela. Y porque aquello que con tanta sabiduria trabajo, y con tal diligen-

[fol. 4r] cia obro conla flaqueza dela humana condicion no peligrasse con tanta fee y caridat compuso este libro que segun la honrra que avn hoy enla ciudat despoleto en italia a sus huessos y reliquias se faze, en cuyos montes del leuante venido fizo su penitencia: non se deuria este tractado llamar ensenyañça mas antes historia de su vida muy cierta ca2 no se cree hauer tanto scrito lo que nosotros deuiamos fazer quanto recontado lo que en su vida hauia fecho, por quel obrar y scriuir suyo andaua tan juncto, quel libro no fue antes acabado que diesse fin a su penitencia y ala vida. E por que como dizo el agustino toda la vida del varon christiano que segun el euangelio viue, no es saluo cruz y martirio quien discretamente y con diligencia liere lo que este sancto viejo obrando scriuio, muy claramente vera que sin la lim-

[fol. 4v] pieza y puridat del coraçon que con el fuego dela tribulacion, enla fragua dela penitencia se apura, no puede allegarse a dios la nuestra alma ni por consiguiente amalle ni velle. Que como la simiente avn que muy buena, que enel campo no labrado mas yermo y lleno despinas se echare 2

Ca

310

se pierde y no aprouecha, assi por el contrario sin ser arrincadas del nuestro coraçon conellaçada dela penitencia las rayzes delos reuegidos vicios, no podran tomar fuerças ni medrar las virtudes que alli sembrares, sin las quales la secreta paz dellalma ni la caridat que echando fueral temor de tota seruidumbre nos libra alcançar se pueden. E porende assi como fin el rigor del contino castigo del cuerpo, que con vigilias ayunos abstinencias asprezaq de vestidos y disciplinas se faze, la carne no puede domar se, ni sin

[fol. 5r] la pobreza despirito o voluntatque en menospreciar la gloria mundana, las honrras pompas riquezas tierra propria y parientes consiste el mundo por entero no se abhorrece, ni avn sin el feruor de deuocion, que dellamor delas buenas obras y dela sperança del parayso y del temor del infierno y dolor delas culpas nos viene, los mouimientos del spirito ni apaziguar ni subjugar podemos assi no puede alguno drechamente presumir de subir ala cumbre de perfection ni ala limpieza del coraçon tan necessaria si estas cosas baxas ignora por donde es cierta la subida. Ca ninguno podra jamas llegar al lugar que dessea, sino sabe ni cura de preguntar el camino, y aquel que sin saber lo camina, andar dessea sin llegar y fatigar se enbalde. Porende si a esto endreço el viejo su fatiga y los sudores del desierto para que este camino perdido esta senda angosta de çarças y spinos

[fol. 5v] terrada nos abriesse, si enesto rasgo sus vestidos y sangro su cuerpo tan amenudo, que razo ternan en camino tan abierto y despachado ni de cansar los peresosos ni de fallecer los couardes

311

si3 de tal manera para seguir le nos encamina, que no aconseja con palabras sin conuidar con enxemplos. Ca si quisieremos saber lo que fizo, leamos con diligencia lo que amoniesta, porque assi como no dexo de fazer saluo aquello que fuera demasiado screuir assi no curo de enseñar saluo lo que qualquier pudiere seguir. Porende si las vidas y historias delos padres antiguos que en virtudes y mauillas por la perfection y sanctidat de la vida en sus tiempos tanto resplan decieron que avn ahora con sus enxemplos nos alumbran y consuelan tanto alabamos y nos plazen, porque desechare mos ellarte y doctrina conla qual se fizieron | [fol. 6r] dignos desta alabança. Ca mayor perfection y alabança es conel exercicio de la virtud fazer si mismo digno de ser contado entre los pocos y alabados que por la pereza y descuydo de nuestro animo ser contentos entre los muchos de contar y alabar las marauillas y virtudes delos otros. Abran se pues ya las archas delas riquezas dela soledad y finchan se dellas los pobres, no sufran mas la fambre denseñança las almas ayunas, que van en busca de dios por fallar si mesmas. Deprenda ya la ira de apaziguar se la soberuia de sufrir los ojos velando llorar la gula ayunar y en fin la carne obedecer al spirito; leamos la enseñanças deste sancto viejo en que todo esto se muestra y no solo leamos mas entendamos y platiquemos. Ca esta sciencia y arte sin platicar y obrar lo que se lee no se puede saber antes tanto

[fol. 6v] en mayor deuda queda despues de leyda el negligente y descurado, quanto fue mayor el menosprecio de no querer seguir el camino de salut despues de fallado, ni ha menester de buscar 3

Si

312

otro testigo del stado de su alma saluo el aborrescer y tener en asco los manjares que le dan vida. Queda pues satisfazer adalgunos que diran esta doctrina y enseñança ser solamente paraquellos que renunciaron al siglo y enlas cueuas del desierto armados delas armos dela pobreza affligen sus cuerpos en continua penitencia. Diziendo que los ayunos y otras afflictiones dela carne, que para domar la se fazen muy poco conuienen paraqual que conel exercicio de su cuerpo ha de ganar la vidaY el despojamiento delos bienes y apartamiento enel yermo no se podria sufrir enel que touiere cargo destado y gouierno de otros, o el cuydado de mantener la muger los fijos la familia. Respon-

[fol. 7r.] demos, que si algunos fallaremos de grande stado hauer tomado el consejo euangelico desta perfection y conello hauer seguido a xpisto, razon sera de otrogar que lo que con tal auctoridat y consejo muchos fizieron y avn fazen de cada dia no ser impertinente para nadie. Ca si la gloria es prometida para todos, y el camino de los consejos es mas seguro y mas perfecto, porque no conuerna aqualquier stado lo que para todos es bueno. Ca si esto assi no fuera no dixiera el señor de magdalena que hauia escogido la mejor parte. Y si tu que con esto nos arguyes no solo los consejos de salut muestras que abhorresces, mas quiça ahun los mandamientos no sabes para que tan refezmente con tal ignorancia osas dar sentencia en causa donde dela gloria o dela pena eterna se tracta, ca puesto que el dexar el mundo a muchos no satisfaga porque

[fol. 7v] no quieren y non porque no pueden comotu piensas cierto no podras negar ser a todos necessario el dexar se de peccar y repentir se que aqualquier dentro en su casa es possible. E si el 313

repentimiento sin dolor ni es verdadero ni para ganar perdon es sufficiente que razon hay de desechar la doctrina que de tan prouechosa mente repentir nos demuestra o que causa tenemos deser erehidos que deseamos la gloria si las artes o caminos, que para ella nos guian mas segorus reprochamos. El sancto Rey Luys de francia si de semejante doctrina no fuera ensenyado como supiera menospreciar el reyno terreno por cobrar aquel del cielo para siempre turable y aquella sancta helisabeth fija del rey dungria que fue la causa que siendo donzella delicata y ricamente casada debaxo delas sedas y brocado trahia el cilicio y enla escura noche durmiendo el marido desus bra

[fol. 8r] ços se descolgaua para que desnuda y de rodillas enla dura tierra en oraciones passasse el tiempo quellotro despendia en suenyo, y tanto le supo dulce aquesta vida que no penso jamas ser rica fasta que partida del marido y sus bienes despendidos en pobres alcanço la pobreza de cristo, que avn enel hospital que para los otros hauia obrado, si mesma fizo indigna de ser acogida. Gozaua se de sufrir fambre ella sola, por que a ninguno delos pobres faltasse. O grande marauilla de dios la donzella delicada fermosa y rica se enoja del brocado y fuelga enel cilicio No puede folgar enla real cama y braços del marido y descansa desnuda enla dura tierra, no le saben los delicados y preciosos manjares y goza se de roer los duros mendrugos del pan llorado alas puertas de sus vasa llos. Dexa los grandes palacios y corte y toda desfigurada y flaca anda des-

[fol. 8v] nuda y descalça por las calles tenida por loca sin saber donde ala noche ponga su cabeça. Son estos troques y estos enxemplos que basten para que dexemos de contar otros infinitos que se fallan o podra ya dezir alguno que no conuiene a todos lo que a estos y a otros 314

fue mejor que lo que dexaron o parece te poco o hombre que aquel dexasse el reyno y la delicada muger el strado para poner se enel rincon entre los pobres, porque desdalla mas seguros conellos paral cielo tomassen la bolada, no hay por cierto quien no lo conozca, aunque lo nieguen mas detiene a muchos el dulçor de aquesta vida tan amarga y por esto an luengamente se dilata entre los mas el repentir, quanto tura enellos la gana y dispusicion para peccar pero tristes de nosotros que si los momentos horas y dias contamos enlso quales sin cessar corremos para la muerte, veremos que no es mucho de preciar la vida que quanto

[fol. 9r] dexa para tras tanto le falta para delante, y esso mismo si des del principio de nuestra vida siempre morimos, no se como podemos reir si el fin que del mismo comienço depende tanto mas cierto anosotros se allega quanto la cuenta delos dias que no sabemos mas viuiendo mas se acorta. y si el moço tiene dudosa y incierta la vida de que tiene sperañça el viejo, y si la muerte nos toma no dexada o perdida la gana del pecado quien podra dezir qual juyzio de dios no sea justo, que por ello nos dara tan luenga y turaable la pena quanto conla gana del pecar mostramos hauer deseado para siempre la vida porende si el mismo deseo de luengamente viuir faze testigo delo mal que beuimos, no se puede drechamente dezir alguno dessear la verdadera vida que desta tan luenga muerte en que se fuelga primero no sa conuerte, y si quiça el temor de aquexar la muerte llorando retrahe a algunos de fazer penitencia no se porque se llame xpistiano que en tanto penitencia este venir que ose pecar temiendo tanto la muer-

[fol. 9v] te, y no repentir se desseando la vida, quanto mas si aquel tiempo incierto que nos queda para venir, los passados yerros nuestros loganaron para llorar. Saquemos porende partido desta desaprouechada vida y aquello que sin prouecho perece, fagamos que bien se despierda. 315

Carguemos las culpas nuestras passadas sobresto que fuyendo se va que entonces el tiempo tan mal gastado con muy cierta ganancia se cobra, quando aquello que mal viniendo fezimos bien llorando pagamos. Ca no se porque ahora nos ha de desplazer el llorar touiendo tan poca razon de reir. Quien temiendo en flaquecer el cuerpo se puede scusar dela discreta abstinencia, si conella las dolencias que procura la gula suelen curar se. Quien no deue amar la limpieza dela sancta castidat, que delos tan grandes males de qual vicio contrario nos guarda quel cuerpo y llalma juntamente consume y destruye. Quien podra con razon despreciar la po-

[fol. 10r] breza tan querida seguida y alabada de cristo, que dela fambrienta auaricia y delas ponçoñosas saetas dela embidia nos faze seguros, si el rey dauid la pudo guardar en su stado. No desprecie porende alguno enla ciudat la doctrina del yermo que los antiguos prophetas enel desierto recibian lo que enel poblado fablauan y el nuestro redemptor y maestro que no hauia menester studio, por nuestro enxempo la soledat y los montes visitaba amenudo y desdalla descendia a predicar enlas ciudades las enseñanças de salut. Mas leamos y creamos los consejos del sancto viejo, y conosceremos muy claro, que la fambre, la set, la pobreza, el dolor, y dolencias y avn todos los casos aduersos que tanto teme y procura fuir la natura mortal I son malos ni al verdadero sieruo de dios trahen spanto ni nuezen, por que al que dios ama todos los males se le bueluen en bienes. Ca no hay dolor saluo el que

[fol. 10v] la impasciencia faze, ni cosa alguna cruel si quitamos el miedo. Esto prueua la grande constancia delos martires que dela feeles nascia, los quales en aquellos tormentos mas se folgauan, que los tirannos para ellos scogian por mayor pena. Porende concluyendo si procurar la puridat del coraçon enla qual la vista y conoscimiento de dios si promete a qual quier varon 316

xpistiano no solamente es conuenible mas avn tan necessario que sin ello ni hay razon de dessear la vida ni causa para venir, y si aqueste sancto varon para esto nos amonesto y aesto nos encamina por que no alabaremos a dios que dexadas las cueuas del yermo quiso que alo llano descendiesse para con su enxemplo mostar nos esta arte tan prouechosa, conla qual enel exercicio delas virtudes nos esforçemos de tal manera obedecer y seruir le, que si no lo pudieremos boluer mejores almas que nos dio: Alomenos gelas boluamos tan buenas.

317

318

Mateo Bayha

Enguidanos appears in the documents June and July 1493, letter from FII and Takeover documents

4 Possibly 5 New

3 New

(Non Monastic, Needs Profession?)

6 Hermits?

Benet Martinez

Antoni Figuera

Dalmacii died

Fray Engydanos

Benet Roys

Molla, professed 1486?

11 hermits in 1490 7 Hermits

Diego Godino

Mateo Batlia

12 Hermits

Fray Salvador

Pere Coll

Gaspar Mirambells

? Fray Joan

Became Monk 1493

Joan Arnedo

Juan de Vizcaya

(Non Monastic, Needs Profession?)

Joan Gujo

Fray Bartolome

Bartolome Borcis

Pedro Marcos

Onofre Arcos

24-7-1493

Professions, Soler, 441

Joan Ramires

Fray Serra

d. 1490

leaves 1490-1491

July through October 1493, likely prior to 24-7-1493

Albareda, Intervencio, #48, 7 April 1490, Report of Capitulation, Baraut, I: 172visitation 175.

Joan Serra

Antoni Dalmacii

Bernat Boyl

25-5-1484

Confirmation of the Confraternity of Montserrat, Annals, 309311

Letter of Fernando II discussing Boyl's need to leave Sant Cebria d'horta to Mateo 7-6-1493

8 New

12 Hermts

Benito de Aragon

Miguel Navarro

Pierre Gascon

? Joan Molla

Fray Pascual

Miguel Ferrer de Valencia

Antoine de Francia

? Joan Sierra

24-12-1493

Professions, Soler, 441

2 New

11 Hermits

Fray Benito

Miguel de Navarra

Fray Salvador

Martinez Perez

Joan Molla

Fray Pascual

Joan Laurentius de Portugal

Fray Sierra

Fray Marcos

Fray Onofre

14-2-1494

Constitutions, Baraut, II: 462.

1 New?

? Joan de Enguidanos

22-7-1494

Professions, Soler, 441

APPENDIX FIVE Departures and Professions of the Hermits of Montserrat, 1484-1497

0 New

8 Hermits

Fray Benito

Miguel de Navarra

Joan Molla

Fray Pascual

Joan Laurentius

Fray Sierra

Fray Marcos

Fray Onofre

6-1-1499

Constitutions, Baruat, II: 481.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Unpublished Primary Sources Arxiu Capitular de Mallorca, Palma de Mallorca. MS VA 15530. Biblioteca Colombina y Capitular, Sevilla. MS 5-3-42. Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid. MS II/2520. Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid. MS II/795. Biblioteca Pública, Tarragona. MS 135. Biblioteca Pública del Estado, Palma de Mallorca. MS 529. Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, El Escorial. MS Q.III.3. Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, El Escorial. MS N.I.16. Biblioteca de San Millán, San Millán de la Cogolla. MS Ceremonias antiguas de la Órden de Valladolid, ENCA Benedictinos. Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence. MS plut. 89 sup. 96. Incunabula Benedict of Nursia. Regula eximii patris nostri beatissimi Benedicti. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 12 June 1499. Bonaventure (Pseudo). Liber meditationum vite domini nostri iesu christi. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 April 1499. Bonaventure (Pseudo) [Hugo de Balma]. Liber sancti Bonauenture qui incendium amoris dicitur, alias regimen conscientie vel fons vitae. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 27 May 1499. Bonaventure (Pseudo) and Martin of Braga. Sanctus bonauentura de instructione nouitiorum, et de quatuor virtibus cardinalibus. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 June 1499. Breviarium benedictinum. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 18 April 1500. 319

Gerard von Zutphen. Tractatus de spiritualibus ascensionibus. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 16 May 1499. Gerson, Jean (Pseudo) [Kempf, Nicholas]. Epistola de Gerson: excitatiua para el spiritual aprouechamiento. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 1500? Gerson, Jean Charlier. Opera. 3 vols. Cologne: Johannes Koelhoeff de Lübeck, 1483-1484. Horae secundum ordinem sancti benedicti. Barcelona: Iohannes Luschner, 1498? Hymnorum intonationes. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 1500? Indulgence for the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat [Latin]. Barcelona: Iohann Rosembach, 1497-1498? Indulgence for the Dead [Latin]. Montserrat: Iohann Luschner, 1499-1500? Indulgence for the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat [Catalan]. Barcelona: Iohann Luschner, 1497-1498? Indulgence for the Confraternity of Santa Maria de Montserrat [Catalan]. Montserrat: Iohann Luschner, 1499-1500? Isaac of Nineveh. De religione. Translated by Bernat Boyl. San Cugat del Vallés: 29 November 1489 [Actually, Zaragoza: Iohann Hurus, 29 November 1489]. ---. Liber abbatis ysach de ordinacione anime valde vtulis pro viris spiritualibus ad stirpanda vicia et adquirendas virtutes. Barcelona: Diego de Gumiel, 1497. Jiménez de Cisneros, García. Directorio delas horas canonicas. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 30 September 1500. ---. Directorium horarum canonicarum. Translated by Fernando de Torquemada. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 1500. ---. Exercitatorio dela vida spiritual. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 13 November 1500. ---. Exercitatorium vite spiritualis. Translated by Fernando de Torquemada. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 15 November 1500. Missale benedictinum secundum consuetudinem monachorum congregationis sancti Benedicti de Valladolid. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 1499.

320

Mombaer, Jean. Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium et sacrarum meditationum in quo etiam habetur materia predicabilis per totius anni circulum. Paris: Impensis Joannis Parvi & Joannis Scabelerij vulgo dicti Wettenschire, venditurque ab eis sub leone argenteo & insigni Basileensis in vico Sancti Jacobi, 1510. ---. Rosetum exercitiorum spritualium et sacrarum meditationum. In quo etiam habetur materia predicabulis per totum anit circulum. [Zwolle: Peter van Os?], 1494. ---. Exercititia utilissima pro horis solvendis et sacra communione cum considerationibus variis de vita et passione domini et sacramento euchristie. Zwolle: Peter van Os, 1491. Officium Defunctorum. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 1500? Processionarum secundum consuetudinem monachorum congregationis sancti Benedicti de Ualladolid. Montserrat: Iohannes Luschner, 26 August 1500. Published Primary Sources d’Arras, Jean. Mélusine ou la noble histoire de Lusignan: roman du XIVe siècle. Edited and translated by Jean-Jacques Vincensini. Paris: Libraire générale français, 2003. Aquinas, Thomas. Summa theologiae. 3rd ed. 5 vols. Biblioteca de autores cristianos. Madrid: La Editorial Católica, 1952-55. ---. Petri Lombardi sententiarum libri quatuor. Edited by Iohannes Aleaume. Paris: Edition Migne, 1841. Anemüller, Ernst, ed. Urkundenbuch des Klosters Pualinzelle 1068-1534. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1905. Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. Translated and edited by Roger Crisp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. ---. Politics. Edited and translated by Stephen Everson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. ---. Nichomachean Ethics. Translated by W.D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908. Augustine of Hippo. De Trinitate. Edited by J.P. Migne. Patrologiae cursus completus. Series latina 42. Paris: J.P. Migne, 1850. Bergenroth, G.A., ed. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain Preserved in the Archives at Simancas and Elsewhere. 2 vols. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862. 321

Bernard of Clairvaux. Monastic Obligations and Abbatial Authority: St. Bernard’s Book on Precept and Dispensation. In The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises I. Translated by Conrad Greenia with an introduction by Jean Leclercq [and G. Gärtner]. Cistercian Fathers Series 1. Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1970. Carreres Valls, Ricardo, ed. El Llibre a Catalunya, 1338-1590. Barcelona: Imprenta Altes, 1936. Cassian, John. Institutes. Translated by Boniface Ramsey. Ancient Christian Writers 58. New York: Newman Press, 2000. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Laelius; A Dialogue on Friendship. Edited by E. S. Shuckburgh, new rev. ed. London: Macmillan and Co., 1913. Engen, John Van, tr. Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1988. Escobedo, Joanna, ed. Un incunable català retrobat: Horae secundum ordinem sancti Benedicti. Barchinone. Johannes Luschner, 1498 (?). Barcelona: Biblioteca de Catalunya, 1992. Ficino, Marsilio. Letters of Marsilio Ficino. 7 vols. London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1975. Fox, Richard. Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England with an Edition of Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517. Edited by Barry Collet. The Early Modern Englishwoman 1500-1750. Contemporary Editions. London: Ashgate, 2002. Francis of Assisi. Francis of Assisi: Early documents, edited by Regis J. Armstrong, J.A. Wayne Hellmann, and William J. Short. 3 vols. New York: New City Press, 1999-2001. Fry, Timothy, ed. RB1980. The Rule of Saint Benedict. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1981. Gerson, Jean Charlier. Oeuvres completes. Edited by Palemon Glorieux. 10 vols. Paris: Desclée, 1960. ---. Opera Omnia. Edited by Louis Ellies Du Pin. 4 vols. Antwerpae: Sumptibus Societatis, 1706. Giustiniano, Paolo. Regola della vita eremitica. Translated by Aldo Visentin. Seregno: Abbazia San Benedetto, 1996. Gratian. Decretum. In Corpus iuris canonici. Edited by Aemilius Ludovicus Richterius. Lipsiae: Officina Bernahardi Tauchnitz, 1879. 322

Gregory IX. Decretalium compilatio, 2007 (8 August 2008). Gregory the Great. Homélies sur Ézéchiel. Edited and translated by C. Morel. 2 vols. Sources Chrétiennes 327 and 360. Paris: Cerf, 1986 and 1990. ---. Moralia sur Iob. Edited by M. Adriaen. 3 vols. Corpus christianorum series latina 143, 143A, and 143B. Turnhout: Brepols, 1979. Grosseteste, Robert. Roberti Grosseteste quondam episcopi Lincolniensis epistolae. Edited by Henry R. Luard. Rolls Series 26. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, Co., 1861. Harvey, Barbara F. Documents Illustrating the Rule of Walter de Wenlok, Abbot of Westminster, 1283-1307. Camden Fourth Series 2. London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1965. Inventari dels libres de la Senyora Donna María, reina de les Sicilies e de Aragó. Colección de documentos históricos publicados en la Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 1. Madrid, Imprenta y estereotipia de M. Rivadeneyra, 1872; reprint, Valencia: ParísValencia, 1992. Isidore de Sevilla. Synonyma. Edited by J.P. Migne. Patrologiae cursus completus. Series latina 83. Paris: J.P. Migne, 1850. Jiménez de Cisneros, García. García Jiménez de Cisneros, obras completas. Edited by Cipriano Baraut. 2 vols. Scripta et documenta 15 and 16. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1965. Kardong, Terence G., tr. Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996. Lejarza, Fidel de and Angel Uribe. “Escritos villacrecianos.” Archivo Ibero-americano 17 (1957): 663-945. Madurell Marimón, José María, ed. Documentos para la historia de la imprenta y librería en Barcelona, 1474-1553. Annotated and with an introduction by Jordi Rubió i Balaguer. Barcelona: Gremios de Editores, de Libreros y de Maestros Impresores, 1955. Martial. Epigrammata. Edited by John. P. Sullivan. New York: Garland Publishers, 1993. Mittarelli, Iohanne-Benedicto and Anselmo Costadoni, eds. Annales camaldulenses ordinis sancti Benedicti quibus plura interseruntur tum ceteras italico-monasticas res, tum historiam ecclesiasticam remque diplomaticam illustrantia. 9 vols. Venice: Prostant apud Jo. Baptistam Pasquali, 1755-1773. 323

Münzer, Jerónimo. Viaje por España y Portugal (1494-1495). Translated by J. López Toro. Espejo navegante 8. Madrid: Ediciones Polifemo, 1991. Núñez, Lucio María. “Dos cartas interesantes de Fr. Bernardo Boil a Cisneros.” Archivo IberoAmericano (1916): 436-443. Oswald of Corda. Oswaldi de corda opus pacis. Edited by Belinda Egan. Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis 179. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001. Paz y Meliá, Antonia, ed. El cronista Alonso de Palencia; su vida-y sus obras; sus décadas y las crónicas contemporáneas; illustraciones de las décadas y notas varias. The Hispanic Society of America 98. Madrid: The Hispanic Society of America, 1914. Peckham, John. Registrum epistolarum fratris Johannis Peckham, archiepiscopi cantuariensis. Edited by Charles Trice Martin. 3 vols. London: Longman, 1882-1885. Perdigo, Manuel. Epístola de Gerson: imprès a Montserrat, l’any 1500. Barcelona: José Porter, 1948. Pfandl, Ludwig, ed. “Itinerarium hispanicum Hieronymi Monetarii (1494-1495).” Revue Hispanique 48 (1920): 1-179. Pulgar, Fernando de. Crónica de los Reyes Católicos. Edited by Juan de Mata Carriazo. 2 vols. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1943. Roca, Josep María. “Documents històrichs: La devoció de la reyna d’Aragó dona Elienor de Sicilia, a Madona Sancta Maria de Montserrat.” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1924): 430433. ---. “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó.” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1922): 434440. ---. “Documents del Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó i del reial patrimoni.” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1920-1921): 319-336. Rubio y Lluch, Antonio, ed. Documents per l’historia de la cultura catalana mig-eval. 2 vols. Barcelona: Institut d’estudis Catalans, 1908-1921. Sans i Travé, Josep Maria, ed. Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya. 6 vols. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departement de la Presidència, 1994-.

324

Solosona i Climent, Francina. “Uns documents sobre Montserrat després de la guerra civil catalana del segle XV.” In XXVI Assemblea Intercomarcal d’Estudiosos. 2 vols. Miscellània d’Estudis Bagencs 4. Manresa: Centre d’estudis del Bages, 1985. Steidle, Basilius, tr. The Rule of Saint Benedict: A New Translation of the Rule and Commentary. Canon City, CO: 1967. Tobella, Antoni, ed. “La Congregació claustral Tarraconense i les diverse recapitulacions de les seves constitucions provincials.” In Catolonia Monastica. Recull de documents i estudis referents a monestirs catalans. 2 vols., 2: 111-251. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1927-1929. Torre, Antonio de la, ed. Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales de los Reyes Católicos. 6 vols. Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Patronato Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, 1949-1966. Ward, Benedicta, tr. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection. Cistercian Studies Series 59. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1975. Zurita y Castro, Jerónimo. Anales de la corona de Aragón. 9 vols. Edited by A. Canellas López. Zaragoza: C.S.I.C. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1967-1986. Secondary Sources Abbad Rios, Francisco. Catálogo monumental de España: Zaragoza. 2 vols. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1957. Aguiló y Fuster, Mariano. Catálogo de obras en lengua catalana impresas desde 1474 hasta 1860. Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, 1923. Albareda, Anselm M. Història de Montserrat. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1931; reprint, Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1998. ---. “Lul·lisme à Montserrat al segle XVè. L’ermità Bernat Boil.” Estudios lulianos 9 (1965): 5-21. ---. “Intorno alla scuola di orazione metodica stabilita a Montserrato dall’abbate Garsias Jiménez de Cisneros (1493-1510).” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 25 (1956): 254-316. ---. “Intervenció de l’Abat Joan de Peralta i dels Reis Católics en la reforma de Montserrat (1479-1493).” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): 5-90. ---. “Un incunabulo sconosciuto dello stampore J. Luschner.” Storia e letteratura 15 (1947): 2937. 325

---. Sant Ignasi a Montserrat. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1935; reprint, 1990. ---. El Llibre a Montserrat (del segle XI al segle XX). Montserrat: Monestir de Montserrat, 1931. ---. “Monjos de Montecassino à Montserrat.” In Casinensia: miscellane di studi Cassinensi, publicati in occasione del XIV centenario della fondazione dell’abadia de Montecassino. 2 vols., 2: 210-216. Monte Cassino: Ex Typographia casinensii, 1929. ---. “La ‘Regula Sancti Benedicti’ estampada a Montserrat al 1499.” In Catolonia Monastica. Recull de documents i estudis referents a monestirs catalans. 2 vols., 2: 111-251. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1927-1929.2: 385-405. ---. “Cronologia dels primers abats de Montserrat 1409-1493.” Analecta montserratensia 5 (1924): 293-359. ---. “Una història inédita de Montserrat.” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1920-1921): 29-189. ---. “Cronologia dels darrers priors de Montserrat 1284-1409.” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1920-1921): 191-261. ---. “Comentari al viatge a Montserrat de Geroni de Münzer.” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1920-1921): 281-291. ---. “L’Arxiu Antic de Montserrat.” Analecta montserratensia 3 (1919): 11-216. ---. “La impremta de Montserrat (segles XV-XVI).” Analecta montserratensia 2 (1918): 11-166. ---. “Manuscrits de la biblioteca de Montserrat.” Analecta montserratensia 1 (1917): 3-99. d’Allerit, Odette. “Bernardo Boyl, ermitaño de Montserrat, y los orígenes de los Mínimos en España.” In España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos. Analecta Legerensia 1, 227-256. Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970. Altés i Aguiló, Francesc Xavier, Josep Massot i Muntaner, and Josep Faulí. Cinc-cents anys de Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2005. Altés i Aguiló, Francesc Xavier. “Els abats montserratins del segle XVI al Liber reformationis montisserati.” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 157-214. Ancilli, E. “Direzione spirituale.” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 3: cols. 530-548. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 19742003. 326

Antonio Menniti, Ippolito, ed. Dizionario biografico degli italiani. 67 vols. Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 1960-. Arco, Ricardo del. “Cortes aragoneses de los Reyes Católicos.” Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 60/1 (1954): 78-82. Argaíz, Gregorio. La perla de Cataluña. Madrid: Andrés García, 1677. Azcona, Tarsicio de. Isabel la Católica. Estudio crítico de su vida y su reinado. 3rd ed. Madrid: Biblioteca de autores cristianos, 1993. ---. “Reforma de religiosas benedictinas y cistercienses de Cataluña en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos.” Studia monastica 9 (1967): 75-165. --. La elección y reforma del episcopado español en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto “P. Enrique Flórez,” 1960. ---. “Primeros pasos de la política religiosa de Fernando el Católico en la elección de obispos.” In Fernando el Católico. Pensamiento político, política internacional y religiosa. V congreso de historia de la corona de Aragón, 275-94. Zaragoza: C.S.I.C. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1956. Augustin, Cornelius. Erasmus der Humanist als Theologe und Kirchenreformer. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 59. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. Auw, Lydia von. Angelo Clareno et les sprituels italiens. Uomini e dottrine 25. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1979. Baraut, Cebrià. “El Papa Alexandre VI i el monestir de Santa María de Montserrat.” Studia monastica 36/1 (1994): 41-68. ---. “Documents reials i pontificis de l’antic arxiu de Montserrat (segles XII-XV).” Studia monastica 35 (1993): 97-159. ---. “Una lletra consolatòria de Bernat Boïl, ermità de Montserrat.” Studia monastica 32 (1990): 381-388. ---. “Entorn de la vinguda de monjos de Montecassino à Montserrat (1443-1455).” Studia monastica 18 (1975): 295-330. ---. “Benet XIII, darrer papa d’Avinyó i el monestir de Montserrat.” Studia monastica 13 (1971): 77-103. ---. “Iconografía de las ermitas y de los ermitaños de Montserrat.” In España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos. Abadía de San Salvador de Leyre, 15-20 de 327

septiembre de 1963. Analecta Legerensia 1, 211-226. Pamplona: Abadia de Leyre, 1970. ---. “En torno al lugar donde fue impresa la traducción Castellana del Isaac ‘De religione’ de Bernardo Boil.” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 37 (1962): 171-178. ---. “Les fonts franciscanes dels escrits de Garsias de Cisneros.” Analecta montserratensia 9 (1962): 65-78. ---. “L’Exercitatorio de la uida spiritual de García de Cisneros et le Tractat de contemplació de Francesc Eiximenis.” Studia monastica 2 (1960): 233-265. ---. “Fragmentos de una versión castella cuatrocentista del ‘Tractatus de vita spirituali’ de San Vicente Ferrer.” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 32 (1960): 213-28. ---. “Els Manuscrits de l’Antigua Biblioteca de Montserrat (Segles XI-XVIII).” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1955): 340-396. Barceló i Crespí, Maria and Gabriel Ensenyat i Pujol. El nous horitzons culturals a Mallorca al final de l’edat mitjana. Menjauents 36. Palma de Mallorca: Edicions Documenta Balear, 2000. Berlière, Ursmer. Les èlections abbatiales au moyen âge. Académie royale de Belgique. Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques. Mémoires. Collection in-8. 2e série 20, 3 Brussels: Lamertin, 1927. ---. “Mélanges d’histoire monastique. Fray Bernal Boyl.” Révué benedictine 9 (1892): 415417. Bell, David N. “The Libraries of Religious Houses in the Late Middle Ages.” In The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, edited by Elisabeth LeedhamGreen and Teresa Weber. 3 vols., 1: 126-151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Benz, Ernst. Meditation, Musik und Tanz: Über den “Handpsalter”, eine spätmittelalterliche Meditationsform aus dem Rosetum des Mauburnus. Akademie der Wissenshaften und der Literatur. Abhandulungen der Geistes-und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse Jahrgang 3. Mainz: Akademie der Wissenshaften und der Literature, 1976. Behrendt, Roland. “The Library of Abbot Trithemius.” American Benedictine Review 10 (1959): 67-85. Bertini, G.M. Studi e ricerche ispaniche. Pubblicazioni dell’Università Cattolica del S. Cuore. Ser. 4. Scienze filologiche 39. Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1942. 328

Besse, J.M. “Une question d’histoire littéraire au XVIe siècle: L’Exercice de Garcias de Cisneros et les Exercices de Saint Ignace.” Revue des questions historiques 61 (1897): 22-51. Böckmann, Aquinata. “RB 5: Benedict’s Chapter on Obedience.” American Benedictine Review 109 (1994): 109-130. Brann, Noel L. The Abbot Trithemius (1462-1516): The Renaissance of Monastic Humanism. Studies in the History of Christian Thought 24. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981. Brown, Cynthia. Poets, Patrons, and Printers: Crisis of Authority in Late Medieval France. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. ---. “Text, Image, and Authorial Self-Consciousness in Late Medieval Paris.” In Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, edited by Sandra L. Hindman, 103-142. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. Bühler, Curt. “False Information in the Colophons of Incunabula.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 114/5 (1970): 398-406. ---. The Fifteenth-Century Book. The Scribes, the Printers, the Decorators. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960. Bunge, Gabriel. “Mar Isaak von Ninive und sein ,,Buch der Gnade”.” Ostkirchliche Sudien 34/1 (1985): 3-32. Burke, Peter. “Humanism and Friendship in Sixteenth-Century Europe.” In Friendship in Medieval Europe, edited by Julian Haseldine, 262-274. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999. ---. The European Renaissance: Centers and Peripheries. Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1998. Burr, David. The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. Burton-Christie, Douglas. Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in the Early Christian Monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Caby, Cécile. De l’érémitisme rural au monachisme urbain: Les Camaldules en Italie à la fin du moyen âge. Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 35. Rome: École Français de Rome, 1999. Calmette, Joseph. “La monarchie aragonaise et la campagne de français en Roussillon en 14741475.” Annales du Midi 61 (1948-1949): 96-101 and 182-199. 329

---. La question des Pyrénées et la Marche d’Espagne au Moyen âge. Paris: Janin, 1947. ---. “La politique espagnole dans la crise de l’indépendance Bretonne (1488-1492).” Revue historique 117 (1914): 168-179. ---. “La fin de la domination française en Roussillon au XVe siècle: Étude d’histoire diplomatique.” Bulletin de la Société agricole, scientifique et littéraire des PyrénéesOrientales 43 (1902): 161-192. ---. Louis XI, Jean II et la révolution catalane (1461-1473). Toulouse: Privat, 1902. Camaño Martínez, Jesús María. “Arquitectura y artes plásticas.” In Historia de España. 43 vols., 16: 716-717. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1935-2007. Camille, Michael. “Reading the Printed Image: Illuminations and Woodcuts of the Pelerinage de la vie humaine in the Fifteenth Century.” In Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, edited by Sandra Hindman, 259-291. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. ---. “Mimetic Identification and Passion Devotion in the Later Middle Ages: A Double-sided Panel by Meister Francke.” In The Broken Body: Passion and Devotion in Late-Medieval Culture, edited by A.A. MacDonald, H.N.B. Ridderbos, and R.M. Schlusemann, 183210. Gronigen: Egbert Forsten, 1988. Cantoni Alzati, Giovanna, ed. La Biblioteca di S. Giustina di Padova: libri e cultura presso i benedettini padovani in età umanistica. Medioevo e umanesimo 4. Padova: Antenore, 1982. Capelle, Catherine. Le voeu d’obédissance des origines au XIIe siècle: étude juridique. Paris: Libraire générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1959. Caresmar, Jayme. “Noticias del Venerable P. Fr. Bernardo Boil.” Analecta montserratensia 2 (1918): 345-373. Carlson, David. English Humanist Books: Writers and Patrons, Manuscripts and Print, 14751525. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993. Carreras Valls, Ramón. Catalunya descobridora d’Amèrica: la pre-descoberta e els catalans Joan Cabot I Cristòfol Colim; segons documents inèdits. Barcelona: Imprenta Altés, 1929. Carrión González, Luis. Historia documentada del Convento Domus Dei de la Aguilera. Madrid: Editorial Ibérica, 1930.

330

Carter, Harry. A View of Early Typography up to about 1600. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969; reprint, London: Hyphen Press, 2002. Cavadini, John, and Allan D. Fitzgerald, eds. Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1999. Cavallo, Guglielmo. “Between Volumen and Codex: Reading in the Roman World.” In A History of Reading in the West. Edited by Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane, 64-89. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999. Chartier, Roger. The Order of Books. Translated by Lydia Cochrane. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. Chase, Carol. “Christ, the Hermit and the Book: Text and Figuration in the Prologue to the Estoire del Saint Graal.” In De sens rassis: Essays in Honor of Rupert T. Pickens, edited by Keith Busby, Bernard Guidot, and Logan E. Whalen, 125-147. New York: Rodopi, 2005. Chavannes-Mazel, Claudine, A. “Expanding Rubrics for the Sake of Layout: Mise-en-page as Evidence for a Particular Scribe.” In Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, Proceedings of the Second Conference of the Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1998, edited by Linda L. Browning, 117-131. Los Altos Hills, CA: Anderson-Lovelace; the Red Gull Press, 1990. Chavasse, Ruth. “Latin Lay Piety and Vernacular Lay Piety in Word and Image: Venice, 1471early 1500.” Renassiance Studies 10/3 (1996): 319-342. Chevignard, Bernard-Marie. “Formation Spirituelle.” In Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert. 17 vols., 5: cols. 699-716. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995. Chialà, Sabino. Dall’ascesi eremitica alla misericordia infinita. Ricerche su Isacco di Ninive e la sua fortuna. Biblioteca della rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa studi 14. Florence: L. S. Olschki, 2002. Chibnall, Margorie. “From Bec to Canterbury: Anselm and Monastic Privilege.” Anselm Studies 1 (1983): 23-44; reprinted in Piety, Power and History in Medieval England and Normandy. Aldershot, UK: Variorum Reprints, 2000. Cloulas, Ivan. Jules II: Le pape terrible. Paris: Fayard, 1990. Cole, Basil. “Consecrated Obedience and Spirituality.” Angelicum 73 (1996): 569-587. Collell, J. Fray Bernardo Boyl primer apóstol de América. Vich: Imp. de L. Anglada, 1929. 331

---. “Vingueren à Montserrat monjos de Monte-Cassino a mitjans del segle XV?” Analecta montserratensia 1 (1917): 193-200. Collett, Barry. “Holy Expectations: The Female Monastic Vocation in the Diocese of Winchester on the Eve of the Reformation.” In The Culture of Medieval English Monasticism, edited by James Clark. Studies in the History of Medieval Religion 30, 147-165. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 2007. ---. “The Civil Servant and Monastic Reform: Richard Fox’s Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517.” In Monastic Studies: The Continuity of Tradition, edited by Judith Loades, 211-228. Bangor, Wales: Headstart History, 1990. ---. Italian Benedictine Scholars and the Reformation. The Congregation of Santa Giustina of Padua. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. Colombás, García M. “La santa montaña de Montserrat.” In España eremitica. Actas de la VI semana de estudios monásticos. Abadía de San Salvador de Leyre, 15-20 de septiembre de 1963. Analecta Legerensia 1, 165-210. Pamplona: San Salvador de Leyre, 1970. ---. “La confirmació de la Confraria de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat per Garsias de Cisneros i els seus monjos.” Analecta Montserratensia 10 (1964): 55-63. ---. Un reformador benedictino en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos: García Jiménez de Cisneros, abad de Montserrat. Studia et documenta 5. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1955. ---. “Documentos sobre la sujeción del monasterio de Montserrat al San Benito de Valladolid.” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1954-1955): 91-124. Colombás, García M., and Mateo M. Gost. Estudios sobre el primer siglo de San Benito de Valladolid. Scripta et documenta 3. Montserrat: Abadia de Montserrat, 1954. Connolly, James. John Gerson: Reformer and Mystic. Louvain: Librairie Universitaire, 1928. Copeland, Rita. Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Crean Jr., John E. “The Altenberg Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue: A Middle High German Version adapted for Nuns, 1505.” Vox Benedictina 10/1 (1993): 151-156. ---. “Voces Benedictinae: A Comparative Study of Three Manuscripts of the Rule of St. Benedict for Women.” Vox Benedictina 10/1 (1993): 157-178.

332

---. “Embellishment in Feminine Versions of the Rule of St. Benedict in Middle High German.” Cistercian Studies 16 (1981): 66-75. ---. “Obsculta o Fili / Hör o Tochter: Gender Modification in a 1505 Rule of St. Benedict.” Classical Folia 31 (1977): 153-162. ---. “The Unique Language of the Altenburg Rule of St. Benedict.” In Studies in Medieval Culture, edited by John R. Sommerfeldt and Thomas H. Seiler, 125-132. Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University Press, 1977. Curiel, Fausto. “Bernardo Boil, único. Nuevo documento inédito y decisivo.” Revista montserratina (1914): 149-154. Dalmau, Bernabé. “Les relations entre les moines et les ermites de Montserrat de 1300 à 1500.” Studia monastica 14/1 (1972): 125-152. Daumet, Georges. Etude sur l’alliance de la France et de la Castille au XIVe et au XVe siécles. Paris, 1898. Debognie, Pierre. Jean Mombaer de Bruxelles abbé de Livry, ses escrits et ses réformes. Louvain: Libraire Universitaire, 1928. ---. “Une oeuvre oubilée de Mauburnus. Le Rosarum hortulus.” Revue d’ascetique et de mystique 8 (1927): 392-402. ---. “Corneille Gérard à Saint-Victor.” Nederlandsch Archief voor Kerkgeschiendenis (1923): 161-178. Delgado Casado, Juan. Diccionario de impresores españoles (Siglos XV-XVII). 2 vols. Madrid: Arco Libros, S.L., 1996. Demacopulos, George E. Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007. Dennison, Lynda. “Oxford, Exeter College MS 47: The Importance of Stylistic and Codicological Evidence in its Dating and Localization.” In Medieval Book Production: Assesing the Evidence, edited by Linda Brownrigg, 41-59. Los Altos Hills, CA: Anderson-Lovelace - The Red Gull Press, 1990. Diago Hernando, Máximo. “La reforma de los monasterios riojanos en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos.” Hispania sacra 44/90 (1992): 667-697. Dictionnaire de droit canonique. Edited by R. Naz, 7 vols. Paris: Libraire Letouzey et Ané, 1957. 333

Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire. Edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert. 17 vols. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995. Diccionari Biogràfic. 4 vols. Barcelona: Albertí, 1966-1970. Diccionari d’història de Catalunya. Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1992. Diosdado Caballero, Raymundo. De prima typographiae aetate specimen. Rome: Antonium Fulgonium, 1793. Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione. Edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Douie, Decima L. The Nature and the Effect of the Heresy of the Fraticelli. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1932. Doyère, Pierre. “Ermites.” In Dictionnaire de droit canonique. Edited by R. Naz. 7 vols., 5: cols. 412-429. Paris: Libraire Letouzey et Ané, 1957. ---. “Érémitisme: Érémitisme en occident.” In Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert. 17 vols., 4: cols. 953-982. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995. Dreuille, Mayeul de. The Rule of Saint Benedict and the Ascetic Traditions from Asia to the West. Translated by Mark Hargreaves. Leominster, Herefordshire, UK: Gracewing, 2000. Driver, Martha W. “Pictures in Print: Late Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century English Religous Books for Lay Readers.” In De Cella in Seculum: Religious and Secular Life and Devotion in Late Medieval England. An interdisciplinary Conference in Celebration of the Eighth Centenary of the Consecration of St. Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln 2022 July, 1986, edited by Michael G. Sargent, 229-244. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1989. Duffy, Eamon. “Elite and Popular Religion: The Book of Hours and Lay Piety in the Later Middle Ages.” In Elite and Popular Religion: Papers Read at the 2004 Summer Meeting and the 2005 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, edited by Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory. Studies in Church History 42, 140-161. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Published for the Ecclesiastical History Society by the Boydell Press, 2006. Dumas, Auguste. “Juridiction ecclesiastique.” In Dictionnaire de droit canonique, edited by R. Naz. 7 vols., 6: 235-283. Paris: Libraire Letouzey et Ané, 1957. Eden, Kathy. Friends Hold All Things in Common: Tradition, Intellectual Property, and the Adages of Erasmus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. 334

---. “Between Friends All is Common:” The Erasmian Adage and Tradition.” Journal of the History of Ideas 59/3 (1998): 405-419. Edwards, John. “España es diferente”? Indulgences and the Spiritual Economy in Late Medieval Spain.” In Promissory Notes on the Treasury of Merits Indulgences in Late Medieval Europe, edited By Robert N. Swanson. Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition 5, 147-168. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006. ---. Ferdinand and Isabella. London: Pearson-Longman, 2005. ---. The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs 1474-1520. Oxford: Blackwell Press, 2000. Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Elm, Kaspar. “Riforme e osservanze nel XIV e XV secolo. Una sinossi.” In Ordini religiosi e società politica in Italia e Germania nei secoli XIV e XV. Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento 56, edited by Giorgio Chittolini and Kaspar Elm, 489-504. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino, 2001. Encyclopédie Théologique ou série de dictionnaires sur toutes les parties de la science religiuse. Edited by J.P. Migne. 50 vols. Paris: Ateliers Catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, 18451873. Febvre, Lucien, and Henri-Jean Martin. The Coming of the Book. London: Verso, 1999. Fernández, Luis. La real imprenta del monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Prado 1481-1835. Salamanca: Europa Artes Gráficas, S.A., 1992. Fernández Alonso, Justo, ed. Legaciones y nunciaturas en España de 1466 a 1521. Monumenta hispaniae vaticana 2. Rome: Instituto Español de Historia Eclesiástica, 1963. ---. “Nuncios, colectores, y legados pontificios de España de 1474-1492.” Hispania sacra 10 (1957): 7-27. Fernández Serrano, Francisco. Obispos auxiliaries de Zaragoza en tiempos de los arzobispos de la casa real de Aragón (1460-1575). Zaragoza: Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 1969. Figueira, Robert C. “The Medieval Papal Legate and His Province: Geographical Limits to Jurisdiction.” In The Plenitude of Power. The Doctrines and Exercise of Authority in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Robert Louis Benson, edited by Robert C. Figueira, 73-106. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006. Fita, Fidel. “Fray Bernardo Boyl. Documentos inéditos.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 22 (1893): 373-378. 335

---. “El primer apóstol y el primer obispo de América. Escrito inédito de Fray Bernal Boyl, y nuevos datos biográficos de Fray García de Padilla, obispo de Bainúa y de Santo Domingo en la isla de Haiti.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 20 (1892): 573614. ---. “Fray Bernal Boyl y D. Juan de Albión. Documentos inéditos.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 20 (1892): 179-264. ---. “Fray Bernal Boyl. Documentos inéditos.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 20 (1892): 160-177. ---. “Escritos de Fray Bernal Boyl, ermitaño de Monserrate.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 267-348. ---. “Cartas inéditas de D. Arnaldo Descós en la colección.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 377-445. ---. “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos datos biográficos.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 557-560. ---. “Fray Bernal Boyl y Cristóbal Colón. Nueva colección de cartas reales, enriquecida con algunas inéditas.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 173-233. ---. “Fray Bernal Boyl. Nuevos datos biográficos.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 557-560. ---. “Fray Bernardo Boyl, abad de Cuxá.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 19 (1891): 354-356. ---. Fray Bernal Buyl o el primer apóstol del nuevo mundo. Colección de documentos raros e inéditos. Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda é hija de Fuentenebro, 1884. Flórez, Enrique, Manuel Risco, Antolín Merino, et alia eds. España sagrada. Theatro geographico-historico de la iglesia de España. Origen divisiones, y limites de todas sus provincias. Antiguedad, traslaciones, y estado antiguo, y presente de sus sillas, con varias dissertaciones criticas. 51 vols. Madrid, A. Marin and M.F. Rodriguez, 17541879. Fonzo, Lorenzo di. Sisto IV: Carriera scolastica e integracioni biografiche (1414-1484). Rome: Edizioni Miscellanea Francescana, 1987. Führer, Mark. “The Consolation of Contemplation in Nicholas of Cusa’s De visione dei.” In Nicholas of Cusa on Christ and the Church: Essays in Memory of Chandler McCuskey 336

Brooks for the American Cusanus Society, edited by Gerald Christianson and Thomas M. Izbicki, 221-240. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. Füssel, Stephen. Gutenberg and the Impact of Printing. Translated by Douglas Martin. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2003. Gagliardi, Isabella. “L’eremo nell’anima i gesuati nel quattrocento.” In Eremites de France et d’Italie (XIe-XVe siècle), edited by André Vauchez. Collection de l’École Français de Rome 313, 439-459. Rome: École Français de Rome, 1999. Gain, Benoît. “Ange Clareno et les pères grecs.” In Angelo Clareno Francescano. Atti del XXXIV Convegno internazionale Assisi, 5-7 ottobre 2006, Atti dei convegni della Società Internazionale di Studi Francescani e del Centro Interuniversitario di Studi Francescani 17, 393-408. Spoleto: Fondazione Italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, 2007. Galuzzi, A. “l’eremita Bernardo Boil e le instructiones di Alessandro VI sulla situazione in Italia alla fine del sec. XV.” Bollettino Ufficiale dell’Ordine dei Minimi 18 (1972): 336-356. Ganzer, Klaus. “Zur monastichen Theologie des Johannes Trithemius.” Historisches Jahrbuch 101 (1981): 384-421. ---. “Monastiche Reform und Bildung. Ein Traktat des Hieronymus Aliotti (1412-1480) über die Studien der Mönche.” In Reformatio ecclesiae Beiträge zu kirchlichen Reformbemühungen von der Alten Kirche biz zur Neuzeit. Festgabe für Erwin Iserloh, edited by Remigius Bäumer, 181-199. Munich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1980. García Marco, Luis Fernando and Francisco Javier García Marco. “El impacto dela muerte del Príncipe Juan en Daroca (1497-1498): Poesía elegiáca y ritual urbano.” Aragón en la Edad Media 10-11 (1993): 307-333. García Oro, José. El Cardenal Cisneros: vida y empresas. 2 vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de autores cristianos, 1992-1993. ---. Cisneros y la reforma del clero español en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Instituto Jerónimo Zurita “Biblioteca Reyes Católicos” 13. Madrid: Domenech-Madrid S.A., 1971. ---. La Reforma de los religiosos españoles en tiempo de los Reyes Catolicos. Valladolid: Instituto Isabel la Católica de Historia Eclesiastica, 1969. García Villoslada, Ricardo, ed. Historia de la iglesia en España. 5 vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1976-1980. Gehl, Paul. “Preachers, Teachers and Translators: The Social Meaning of Language Study in Trecento Tuscany.” Viator 25 (1994): 289-323. 337

---. “Mystical Language Models in Monastic Education Psychology.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studeis 14 (1984): 219-243. Gilmont, Jean-François. “Printing at the Dawn of the Sixteenth Century.” In The Reformation and the Book, edited by Jean-François Gilmont and translated by Karin Maag, 10-20. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Gimeno Blay, Francesco M. “Copistas y committenza de manuscritos en catalán (siglos XIVXV).” In Scribi e colofoni: Le sottoscrizioni di copisti dalle origini all’avvento della stampa. Atti del seminario di Erice X colloquio del comité international de paléographie latine (23-28 ottobre 1993), edited by Emma Condello and Giuseppe de Gregorio, 167184. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1995. Goehring, James. “The Encroaching Desert: Literary Production and Ascetic Space in Early Christian Egypt.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 1/4 (1993): 281-296. Goméz Uriel, Miguel, and Félix Latassa. Biblioteca antigua y nueva de escritores aragoneses de Latassa aumentadas y rendidas en forma de diccionario bibliográfico-biográfico. 3 vols. Zaragoza: Calisto Ariño, 1884-1886. Gribomont, Jean. “La «Scala paradisi», Jean de Raïthou, et Ange Clareno,” Studia monastica 2 (1960): 345-358. Groult, Pierre. Les mystiques des pays-bas et la littérature espagnole du seiziéme siècle. Louvain: Librairie universitaire, 1927. Grundmann, Herbert. Religious Movements in the Middle Ages. Translated by Steven Rowan. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995. Gual Camarena, M. “Servidores del Infante don Fernando 1458-1462.” Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón 6 (1956): 267-280. Guillaumont, Antoine. “Conception du désert chez les moines d’Egypte.” Revue de l’histoire des religions 188 (1975): 3-21. Haebler, Conrad. Bibliografía ibérica del siglo XV. Enumeración de todos los libros impresos en España y Portugal hasta el año 1500. 2 vols. The Hague, Martin Nijhoff, 1903-1917; reprint, Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2000. ---. The Study of Incunabula. Translated by Lucy E. Osborne. New York: Grolier Club, 1933. ---. Geschichte des spanischen Frühdruckes in Stammbäumen. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1923.

338

---. “Gedruckte spanishe Ablaßbriese der Inkunabelzeit.” Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde 8 (19041905): 49-58. ---. Typographie ibérique du quinzième siècle. Reproduction en facsimile de tous les caractères typographiques employés en Espagne et en Portugal jusqu’à l’année 1500 avec notices critiques et biographiques. The Hague: Marinus Nijhoff, 1902; Leipzig: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1902. ---. Reproduction en facsimile de tous les caractères typographiques employés en Espagne et en Portugal jusqu’à l’année 1500. Avec notices critiques et biographiques. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1901. ---. The Early Printers of Spain and Portugal. London: Chiswick Press, 1897. Hamburger, Jeffrey. “Art, Enclosure, and the Cura monialium: Prolegomena in the Guise of a Postscript.” Gesta 31 (1992): 108-134. Hamilton, Alastair. Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-Century Spain. The Alumbrados. Cambridge: James Clarke and Co., 1992. Haro i Perich, Pelegrí. “Una butlla Montserratina desconeguda.” Rivista de llibreria antiquària 1 (1981): 26-30. Harris, Kym. “Abbatial Obedience.” Tjurunga 62 (2002): 47-68. Haseldine, Julian. “Friends, Friendship and Networks in the Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux.” In Friendship in Medieval Europe, edited by Julian Haseldine, 243-279. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999. Hasenohr, Geneviève. “Note sur une traduction française de la Règle de Saint Benoît à SaintGermain-des-Prés (XIVe-XVIe siécles).” In Le Livre et l’historien: études offertes en l’honneur du Professeur Henri-Jean Martin, edited by Frédéric Barbier, Annie ParentCharon, François Dupuigrenet et alia. Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études, IVe section, Sciences historiques et philologiques, Histoire et civilization du livre 24, 25-39. Geneva: Droz: 1997. Hastings, Adrian. “St. Benedict and the Eremitic Life.” Downside Review 68 (1949-1950): 191211. Hausherr, Irénée. Spritual Direction: The Early Christian East. Translated by Anthony P. Gythiel. Cistercian Studies Series 116. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1990. Heyking, John von. Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2001. 339

Hillgarth, Jocelyn N. Readers and Books in Majorca, 1229-1550. 2 vols. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1991. ---. The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978. ---. “Some Notes on Lullian Hermits in Majorca Saec. XIII-XVIII.” Studia monastica 6/2 (1964): 299-328. Hirsch, Rudolph. The Printed Word: Its Impact and Diffusion (Primarily in the 15th and 16th Centuries). London: Variorum, 1989. ---. Printing, Selling and Reading 1450-1550. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1967. Holzherr, Georg. Die Benedicktusregel: Eine Anleitung zu Christlichem Leben. 2nd ed. Einsiedeln: Benziger, 1980. Hos, Henk von, ed. The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. Houwen, Luuk. “Print into Manuscript: A Manuscript Copy of Part of the Boke of St. Albans (1486).” In Boeken in de late Middeleeuwen, edited by Jos. M. M. Hermans and Klaas van der Hoek, 41-52. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1994. Howie, David. “Benedictine Monks, Manuscript Copying and the Renaissance: Johanes Trithemius’ De laude scriptorum.” Revue Bénédictine 86/1 (1976): 29-54. Hunt, Noreen. Cluny under Saint Hugh, 1049-1109. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967. Jacob, E.F. Essays in the Conciliar Epoch. 3rd edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1963. Janeras, Sebastià. “Les edicions impresses del De contemptu mundi d’Isaac de Nínive.” Studia monastica 49/1 (2007): 85-105. ---. “La diffusion d’Isaac de Ninive dans la Péninsula Ibérique.” In Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy, edited by Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala. Gorgias Eastern Christianity Studies 1, 247-274. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007. ---. “Isaac de Nínive citat per Arnau de Vilanova.” Rivista Catalana de Teologia 31/1 (2006): 239-244. Jardine, Lisa. Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1996. 340

Jordan, Louis. “Problems in Interpreting Dated Colophons Based on Examples from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.” In Scribi e colofoni: Le sottoscrizioni di copisti dalle origini all’avvento della stampa. Atti del seminario di Erice X colloquio del comité international de paléographie latine (23-28 ottobre 1993), edited by Emma Condello and Giuseppe de Gregorio, 367-384. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1995. Jotischky, Andrew. The Carmelites and Antiquity: Mendicants and their Pasts in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Kamerick, Kathleen. “Patronage and Devotion in the Prayer Book of Anne of Brittany, Newberry Library MS 83.” Manuscripta 39/1 (1995): 40-50. Kapr, Albert. Johann Gutenberg. The Man and His Invention. Translated by Douglas Martin. Aldershot, Hampshire: Scolar Press, 1996. Kelly, Douglas. Internal Difference and Meanings in the Roman de la Rose. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. King, Peter. Western Monasticism: A History of the Monastic Movement in the Latin Church. Cistercian Studies Series 185. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1999. Klausmann, Theo. Consuetudo consuetidine vincitur: Die Hausordnungen der Brüder vom gemeinsamen Leben im Bildungs- und Sozialisationprogramm der Devotio moderna. Tradition-Reform-Innovation. Studien zer Modernität des Mittelalters Herausgegeben von Nikolaus Staubach 4. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003. Knowles, David. From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966. ---. The Religious Orders in England. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960. Kock, Thomas. Die Buchkultur der Devotio moderna. Handschriftenproduktion, Literaturversorgung und Bibliotheksaufbau im Zeitalter de Medienweschsels. In Tradition-Reform-Innovation. Studien zer Modernität des Mittelalters Herausgegeben von Nikolaus Staubach 2. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002. ---. “Theorie und Praxis der Laienlektüre im Einflußereich der Devotio moderna.” In Laienlektüre und Buchmarkt im späten Mittelalter, edited by Thomas Kock and Rita Schlusemann. Gesselshaft, Kultur, und Schrift Mediävistische Beiträge 5, 199-220. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997. Konstan, David. Friendship in the Classical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

341

Kristeller, Paul. “The Contribution of Religious Orders to Renaissance Thought and Learning.” In Medieval Aspects of Renaissance Learning. Edited and translated by Edward P. Mahoney, 95-163. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Labande-Mailfert, Yvonne. Charles VIII. Le vouloir et la destinée. Paris: Arthéme Fayard, 1986. ---. “Charles VIII et François de Paule. Les grandes questions du règne.” In Francesco di Paola. Chiesa e società del suo tempo, Atti del convegno internazionale di studio (Paola, 20 -24 maggio 1983), 209-237. Rome: Cura Generalizia dell’Órdine dei Minimi 1984. Latassa, Felix de. Biblioteca antigua de los escritores aragoneses que florecieron desde la venida de Christo hasta el año 1500. 2 vols. Zaragoza: Medardo Heras, 1796. Lawrence, Clifford H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 2001. Leclercq, Jean. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God. A Study of Monastic Culture. Translated by Catharine Misrahi. New York: Fordham University Press, 1961; reprint, 1996. ---. “Monastic and Scholastic Theology in the Reformers of the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century.” In From Cloister to Classroom. Monastic and Scholastic Approaches to Truth. Cistercian Studies 90, 178-201. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1986. ---. Un humaniste ermite le bienheureux Paul Giustiniani (1476-1528). Rome: Edizioni Camaldoli, 1951. Leclerq, Jean, and G. Gärtner. “S. Bernard dans l’histoire de l’obéissance monastique.” Anuario de estudios medievales 2 (1965): 31-62. Lejarza, Fidel de, and Angel Uribe. “Escritos villacrecianos.” Archivo Ibero-americano 17 (1957): 663-945. Lewis, Flora. “Rewarding Devotion: Indulgences and the Promotion of Images.” In The Church and the Arts: Papers Read at the 1990 Summer Meeting and the 1991 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, edited by Diana Wood, Studies in Church History 28, 179-194. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992. Leyser, Henrietta. Hermits and the New Monasticism: A Study of Religious Communities in Western Europe 1000-1150. New York: St. Martins Press, 1984. Lialine, Clément. “Érémitisme: Érémitisme en orient.” In Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert. 17 vols., 4: cols. 936-953. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995. 342

Logan, Francis Donald. Runaway Religious in Medieval England c. 1240-1540. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Louf, André. “Spiritual Fatherhood in the Literature of the Desert.” In Abba: Guide to Wholeness and Holiness, East and West. Papers presented at the Symposium on Spiritual Fatherhood/Motherhood at the Abby of New Clairvaux, Vina, California 12-16 June 1978, edited by John R. Sommerfeldt. Cistercian Studies Series 38, Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1982. Lugano, Placido. “De tipografo Bresciano Bartolomeo de Zanettis al servizio di Camaldoli e della ‘Regula Vita Eremitice’ stampata a Fontebuono nel 1520.” Bibliofilia 14 (19121913): 177-83, 210-27, 285-94, and 338-44. ---. “Il primo corpo di constituzioni monastiche per l’ordine de Monteoliveto (1445).” Rivista storica benedettina 6 (1911): 107-134 and 258-296. ---. La Congregazione Camaldolese degli Eremiti di Montecorona dalle origini al nostri tempi con una introduzione sulla vita eremitica prima e dopo San Romualdo. 2nd ed. Monografie di storia benedettina 1. Frascati: Sacro Eremo Tuscolano, 1908. Luxford, Julian. “A Carthusian Economy: Gonville and Caius College MS. 142/192.” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 12/4 (2003): 363-371. Manion, Margaret M., and Bernard M. Muir, eds. The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998. Manion, Margaret M., and Bernard M. Muir, eds. Medieval Texts and Images: Studies of Manuscripts from the Middle Ages. Sydney: Craftsman House, 1991. Martin, Dennis. Fifteenth-Century Carthusian Reform: The World of Nicholas Kempf. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992. Márquez Pailos, Victor-Manuel. “Autoridad y comunidad en la Congregación de Valladolid.” In Silos: un milenio. Actas del congreso internacional sobre la Abadía de Santo Domingo de Silos. January, 2001. 4 vols., 1: 173-212. Burgos: Universidad de Burgos, 2003. Martín Abad, Julían. Post-incunables ibéricos. Madrid: Ollero y Ramos editors, S.L., 2001. Mayer, Augusto L. El arte gótico en España. 3rd edition. Translated by Felipe Villaverde. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1960. McCann, Justin. Saint Benedict: The Story of the Man and His Works. Garden City, NY: Image Books 1958. 343

McEvoy, James. “The Theory of Friendship in the Latin Middle Ages: Hermeneutics, Contextualization and the Transmission and Reception of Ancient Texts and Ideas, from c. AD 350 to c. 1500.” In Friendship in Medieval Europe, edited by Julian Haseldine, 344. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999. McGinn, Bernard. The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, 12501350. In The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, vol. 3. New York: Crossroads Publishing Company, 1998. ---. The Growth of Mysticism: Gregory the Great through the 12th Century. In The Presence of God. A History of Western Christian Mysticism, vol. 2. New York: Crossroads, 1994. McGuire, Brian Patrick. Jean Gerson and the Last Medieval Reformation. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005. McMurry, James. “Monastic Stability.” Cistercian Studies 1 (1962): 209-224. McNamara, Jo Ann Kay. Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1996. Méndez, Francisco. Tipografia española, ó historia de la introducción, propagación y progresos del arte de la imprenta en España. Á la que antecede una noticia general sobre la imprenta de la Europa y de la China: adorno todo con notas instructivas y curiosas. 2nd ed, edited by Dionisio Hidalgo. Madrid: Imprenta de la Escuelas País, 1861. Mertens, Thom. “The Modern Devotion and Innovation in Middle Dutch Literature.” In Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context, edited by Erik Kooper, 226-241. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ---. “Texte der modernen Devoten als Mittler zwischen kirchlicher und persönlicher Reform.” Niederdeutsches Wort 34 (1994): 63-74. ---. “Lezen met de pen. Ontwikkelingen in het laatmiddeleeuwsgeestelijk proza.” In De studie van de Middelnederlandse letterkunde: stand en toekomst. Symposium Antwerpen 22-24 september 1988, edited by F.P. van Oostrom and Frank Willaert. Middeleeuwse Studies en Bronnen 14, 187-200. Hilversum: Verloren, 1989. Minois, Georges. Anne de Bretagne. Paris: Libraire Arthéme Fayard, 1999. Miquel i Planas, Ramón. Bibliofilia; recull d’estudis, observacions, comentaris y noticies sobre llibres en general y sobre qüestions de llengua y literatura catalanes en particular. 2 vols. Barcelona: Miquel-Rius, 1911-20.

344

Miura Andrades, José María. Frailes, monjas y conventos: las órdenes mendicantes y la sociedad sevillana bajomedieval. Publicaciones de la Excelentísima Diputación Provincial de Sevilla: Sección Historia 49. Sevilla: Diputación de Sevilla, 1998. Moorman, John. A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968; reprint 1998. Mortara, Alessandro, ed., Catalogo dei manoscritti italiani che sotto la denominazione di codici canonicani italici si conservano nella Biblioteca Bodleiana a Oxford. Oxford: Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1864. Mulgan, R.G. Aristotle’s Political Theory: An Introduction for Students of Political Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977. Mundó, Anscari. “Notes sobre la cultura montserratina del segle XIV.” Analecta montserratensia 8 (1955): 471-492. Muñoz Poner, María Rosa. “Las Cortes de Tarazona-Valencia-Orihuela (1484-88) y la guerra de Granada.” In La Península Ibérica en la era de los descubrimientos (1391-1492). Actas III jornadas hispano-portugeuses de historia medieval, edited by Manuel González Jiménez, Isabel Montes Romero-Camacho, and Antonio Claret García Martínez. 2 vols., 2: 1481-1509. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Cultura: Universidad de Sevilla, 1997. Musto, Ronald G. “Franciscan Joachimism at the Court of Naples, 1309-1345: A New Appraisal.” Archivum francicanum historicum 90/3-4 (1997): 419-486. ---. “Queen Sancia of Naples (1286-1345) and the Spiritual Franciscans.” Women of the Medieval World: Essay in Honor of John H. Mundy, edited by Julius Kirschner and Suzanne F. Wemple, 179-214. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985. ---. “Angelo Clareno, O.F.M.: Fourteenth-Century Translator of the Greek Fathers. An Introduction and a Checklist of Manuscripts and Printings of his «Scala paradisi».” Archivum franciscanum historicum 76 (1983): 215-238. Najemy, James. Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. Nardelli Cambraia, César. “A difusão da obra de Isaac de Nínive em língua ibero-românicas: breve notícia das tradições portuguesa, espanhola e catalã.” In Performance, exílio, fronteiras: errâncias territoriais e textuais, edited by Graciela Ravetti and Márcia Arbex, 6-19. Belo Horizonte: Departamento de Letras Românicas-Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2002.

345

Newbigin, Nerida. “The Decorum of the Passion: The Plays of the Confraternity of the Gonfalone in the Roman Colosseum, 1490-1539.” In Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image, edited by Barbara Wisch and Diane Cole Ahl, 173-202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Nimmo, Duncan. Reform and Division in the Medieval Franciscan Order from Saint Francis to the Foundation of the Capuchins. Biliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina 33. Rome: Capuchin Historical Institute, 1987. Norton, Frederick. A Descriptive Catalogue of Printing in Spain and Portugal 1501-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. ---. Printing in Spain 1501-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966. Oberste, J. “Visita: La visita canonica.” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 10: 114-122. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Odriozola Pietas, Antonio. “Las Bulas impresas del Hospital Real de Santiago de Compostela.” Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos 3 (1945): 411-434. Olaechea Labayen, Juan. “Inicios de la misión en América: Isabel la Católica, Colon, y Boil.” Hispania sacra 53 (2001): 467-489. Oliver, Judith. “Worship of the Word: Some Gothic Nonnenbücher in their Devotional Context.” In Women and the Book: Assessing the Visual Evidence, edited by Jane H. M. Taylor and Lesley Smith. British Library Studies in Medieval Culture 2, 106-122. London: British Library, 1997. Pagès, Amédée. La poésie française en Catalogne du XIIIe siècle à la fin du XVe: Études suivies de textes inédits ou publiés d’après les manuscrits. Bibliothèque méridionale 23. Paris: Henri Didier, 1936. Parkes, Malcom B. “Reading, Copying and Interpreting a Text in the Early Middle Ages.” In A History of Reading in the West, edited by Roger Chartier and Guglielmo Cavallo. Translated by Lydia Cochrane, 90-102. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999. Pearce, Harold. Walter de Wenlok Abbot of Westminster. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920. Pearsall, Derek. “The Whole Book: Late Medieval English Manuscript Miscellanies and Their Modern Interpreters.” In Imagining the Book, edited by Stephen Kelly and John J. Thompson, 17-29. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005. 346

Pegelow, Ingalill. “Pictures of Cult and Letters of Indulgence.” In Images of Cult and Devotion: Function and Reception of Christian Images in Medieval and Post-Medieval Europe, edited by Soeren Kaspersen and Ulla Haastrup, 33-46. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004. Peláez, Manuel J. Catalunya després de la guerra civil del segle XV: Instituciones, formes de govern i relacions socials i econòmiques (1472-1479). Biblioteca de cultura catalana 46. Barcelona: Curiel, 1981. Penco, Gregorio. Storia del monachismo in Italia. Collana universale storica tempi e Figure 31. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1961. Pérez Martínez, Lorenzo. “El maestro Pedro Daguí y el lulismo mallorquín de fines del siglo XV.” Estudios lulianos 12 (1960): 291-306. Platczek, Erhard Wolfran. “La vida eremítica en las obras del Beato Raimundo Lulio.” Revista de espiritualidad 1 (1942), 61-79. Plenkers, Héribert. “Un manuscrit de Montserrat.” Revue Bénédictine 17 (1900): 362-378. Poole, B.T.F. “Case Reopened: An Enquiry into the ‘Defection’ of Fray Bernal Boyl and Mosén Pedro Margarit.” Journal of Latin American Studies 6/2 (1974): 193-210. Porter, Jean. “Custom, Ordinance and Natural Right in Gratian’s Decretum.” In The Nature of Customary Law, edited by Amanda Perreau-Saussine and James Bernard Murphy, 79100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Potestà, Gian Luca. Angelo Clareno dai poveri eremiti ai fraticelli. Nuovi studi storici 8. Rome: Instituto Palazzo Borromini, 1990. Post, Regnerus Richardus. The Modern Devotion Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism. Studies of Medieval and Reformation Thought 3. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968. Prunés, Josep M. “Nuevos datos y observaciones para la biografía de Fray Bernardo Boyl.” Bollettino ufficiale dell’Ordine dei Minimi 49/4 (2004): 555-574. ---. “Inicios de la orden de los mínimos en España (de las primeras fundaciones hasta finales del siglo XVI).” Bollettino Ufficiale dell’Ordine dei Minimi 48/3 (2004): 539-573. ---. “Bernard Boil: Datos, interrogantes y documentos olvidados.” Bollettino Ufficiale dell’Ordine dei Minimi 47/1 (2001): 105-129. Quadrado, José María. “Arnaldo Descors y Fray Bernal Boyl. Ilustraciones biográficas, politicas y literarias.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 20 (1892): 113-123. 347

Recio, Alejandro, Diosdado Merino, Fidel de Lejarza, and Ángel Uribe, eds. Introducción a los orígenes de la Observancia en España: Las reformas en los siglos XIV y XV. Número extraordinario de la revista con ocasión del V centenario de San Pedro Regalado (14561956). Archivo Ibero-Americano 17. Madrid: Juan Bravo, 1958. Reeve, M.D. “Manuscripts Copied from Printed Books.” In Manuscripts in the Fifty Years after Printing: Some Papers Read at the Colloquium at the Warburg Institute on 12-13 March 1982, edited by J.B. Trapp, 12-20. London: Warburg Institute, University of Long, 1983. Renaudet, Augustin. Humanisme et Renaissance: Dante, Pétrarque, Standonck, Érasme, Lefèvre d’Étaples, Marguerite de Navarre, Ravelais, Guichardin, Giordano Bruno. Geneva: Librairie E. Droz, 1958. ---. Préreforme et humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d’Italie (1494-1517). In Bibliothèque de l’Institut francçais de Florence, 1 ser., vol. 6. Paris: Libraire Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1916. Reynolds, Suzanne. “Inventing Authority: Glossing, Literacy and the Classical Text.” In Prestige, Authority and Power in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts, edited by Felicity Riddy, 7-16. Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2000. Ribas i Calaf, Benet. Annals de Montserrat, (1258-1485). Edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler. Textos i estudis de cultura catalana 52. Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997. ---. Història de Montserrat (888-1258). Edited by Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló and Josep Galobart i Soler. Textos i Estudis de Cultura Catalana 19. Barcelona: Curial Edicions Catalanes; Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1990. Richardson, Brian. Printing, Writers, and Readers in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Riddy, Felicity. “‘Women Talking about the Things of God’: A Late Medieval Subculture.” In Women and Literature in Britain c. 1100-1500, edited by Carol M. Meale, 104-127. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Rigaux, Dominique. “The Franciscan Tertiaries at the Convent of Sant’Anna at Foligno.” Gesta 31/2 (1992): 92-98. Rini, Adriane A. “Do We Have Duties to Friends? Nichomachean Ethics Books 8 and 9.” In Power and Pleasure, Virtues and Vices, edited by Dick Baltzy, Dougal Blyth and Harold Tarrant, 263-278. Auckland, Australasian Society for Ancient Philosophy, 2001.

348

Roberts, Augustine. “The Meaning of the Vow of Stability.” Cistercian Studies 7 (1972): 257269. Rocca, Giancarlo, and J. Gribomont. “Professione: Le formule di professione in Occidente.” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 7: 934-947. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Rodrigo Estevan, María Luz. “El poder real y los rituales públicos de exaltación de la monarquía en una ciudad aragonesa: Daroca (1449-1525).” In El poder en la Corona de Aragón (siglos XII-XVI): XV Congreso de Historia de la Corona de Aragón (Jaca, 1993). 5 vols., 3: 459-478. [Zaragoza?]: Gobierno de Aragón, Departamento de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 1996. Roest, Bert. Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 117. Leiden: Brill, 2004. ---. “A Textual Community in the Making: Collettine Authorship in the Fifteenth Century.” In Seeing and Knowing: Women Learning in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550, edited by Anneke Mulder-Bakker, 163-180. Turnhout: Brepols, 2004. Rouillard, P. “Eremitismo: In occidente, condizione di vita.” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione. Edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 3: cols. 12371239. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Rouse, Richard. “Backgrounds to Print: Aspects of the Manuscript Book in Northern Europe of the Fifteenth Century.” Proceedings of the PMR Conference 6 (1985): 37-50. Rouse, Richard and Mary Rouse. Authentic Witnesses: Approaches to Medieval Texts and Manuscripts. Publications in Medieval Studies 17. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991. ---. “Correction and Emendation of Texts in the Fifteenth Century and the Autograph of the Opus Pacis by ‘Oswaldus Anglicus’.” In Scire litteras. Forschungen zum mittelalterlichen Geistesleben, edited by S. Krämer and M. Bernhard, 333-346. Munich: Abhandlungen der Bayerische Akad. d. Wissenshaften, 1988. Rubió, Jordi. “Butlles incunables de Montserrat.” Analecta montserratensia 4 (1921): 263-277. Rubió i Balaguer, Jordi. Impremta i llibreria a Barcelona (1474-1553). [Barcelona]: Diputació de Barcelona, 1986. Rucquoi, Adeline. “La Réforme monastique en Castille au XVe siècle: une affaire sociale.” In Horizons marins itenéraires sprituels (Ve - XVIIIe). 2 vols., edited by Henrio Dubois, Jean-Claude Hocquet and André Vaudez. Histoire ancienne et médiévale 20, 1: 239-253. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1987. 349

Rudy, Kathryn. “A Guide to Mental Pilgrimage: Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal Ms. 212.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 63/4 (2000): 494-515. Ryder, Alan. The Wreck of Catalonia: Civil War in the Fifteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Alfonso the Magnanimous: King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, 1396-1458. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Saak, Eric L. High Way to Heaven: The Augustinian Platform between Reform and Reformation, 1292-1524. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 89. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002. Saenger, Paul, and Michael Heinlen. “Incunable Description and Its Implication for the Analysis of Fifteenth-Century Reading Habits.” In Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, edited by Sandra Hindman, 225-258. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. Saenger, Paul. “The Implications of Incunable Description for the History of Reading Revisited.” Proceedings of the Bibliographic Society of America 91/4 (1997): 495-504. ---. “The Impact of the Early Printed Page on the History of Reading.” Bulletin du Bibliophile 2 (1996): 237-301. ---. Space between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997. ---. “Books of Hours and the Reading Habits of the Later Middle Ages.” In The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, edited by Roger Chartier. Translated by Lydia Cochrane. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989. ---. “Silent Reading: Its Impact on Late Medieval Script and Society.” Viator 13 (1982): 367414. ---. “Manières de lire medieval.” In Histoire de l’édition française, edited by Henri-Jean Martin and Roger Chartier, 4 vols., 1: 147-161. Paris: Promodis, 1982. Saéz Guillen, José Francisco. Catálogo de manuscritos de la Biblioteca Colombina de Sevilla. 2 vols. Sevilla: Institución Colombina, 2002. Saggi, Ludovico. “Scapulaire.” In Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera, and J. de Guibert. 17 vols., 14: cols. 390-396. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995.

350

Salmon, Pierre. The Abbot in Monastic Tradition: A Contribution to the History of the Perpetual Character of the Office of Religious Superiors in the West. Translated by Claire Lavoie. Washington D.C.: Cistercian Publications Consortium Press, 1972. ---. “Ascèse monastique et exercices spirituels dans les Constitutions [de St. Maur] de 1646.” Revue d’histoire de l’Eglise de France 43 (1957): 268-283. Sanahuja, Pedro. Historia de la Seráfica provincia de Cataluña. Barcelona: Editorial Seráfica, 1956. Sanchis Aleventosa, Joaquín. Sant Espíritu del Monte: Historia del real monasterio. Valencia: Semana Gráfica, S.A., 1948. Sanpere y Miquel, Salvador. De la introducción y establecimiento de la imprenta en las coronas de Aragón y Castilla y de los impresores de los incunables catalanes. Barcelona: Tipografía “L’Avenç,” 1909. Sargent, Michael. “The Problem of Uniformity in Carthusian Book-Production form the Opus Pacis to the Tertia Compilatio Statutorum.” In New Science Out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Honor of A.I. Doyle, edited by Richard Beadle and A.J. Piper, 122-141. London: Aldershot, 1995. Scheepsma, Wybren. Medieval Religious Women in the Low Countries: The ‘Modern Devotion’, the Canonesses of Windesheim and their Writings. Translated by David F. Johnson. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 1997. Schirmer, Elizabeth. “Reading lessons at Syon Abbey: The Myroure of Oure Ladye and the Mandates of Vernacular Theology.” In Voices in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middle Ages, edited by Linda Olson and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, 345-376. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. Schmitz, Philibert. Histoire de l’Ordre de Saint Benoît. 7 vols. Liège: Les Éditions de Maredsous [Imp. G. Thone], 1948-1956. Seebohm, Almuth. “The Crucified Monk.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 59 (1996): 61-102. Serra i Postius, Pedro. Epitome histórico del portentoso santuario y real monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Monserrate. Barcelona: Joseph Giralt, 1747. Sesma Muñoz, José Ángel. Fernando de Aragón. Hispaniarum rex. Zaragoza: Octavio y Félez, S.A., 1992. Sevillano Colom, Francisco. “La cancellería de Fernando el Católico.” In Vida y obra de Fernando el Católico, edited by Antonio de la Torre, 217-253. Zaragoza: Consejo 351

Superior de Investigaciones Científicas de la Excma. Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza. Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 1955. Shaffern, Robert W. The Penitent’s Treasury: Indulgences in Latin Christendom 1175-1375. London: University of Scranton Press, 2007. Shaw, Christine. Julius II: The Warrior Pope. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. Singer, Charles. Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari (1386-1439) and Christian Antiquity. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1977. Singer, Samuel, ed. Thesaurus proverbiorum medii aevi. Lexicon der Sprichwörter des romanisch-germanischen Mittelalters. 14 vols. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995-2002. Smet, Joachim. The Carmelites: A History of the Brothers of Our Lady of Maount Carmel ca. 1200 A.D. until the Council of Trent. 4 vols. Darien, IL: Carmelite Spiritual Center, 1975-1988. Smith, Margaret, M. “The Design Relationship Between the Manuscript and the Incunable.” In A Millennium of the Book: Production, Design and Illustration in Manuscript and Print (900-1900), edited by Robin Myers and Michael Harris. Publishing Pathways 14, 2343. [New Castle], DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1994. Smith, Mark A. Ptolemy’s Theory of Visual Perception: An English Translation of the Optics with Introduction and Commentary. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1992. Sobrequés i Vidal, Santiago, and Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó. La guerra civil catalana del segle XV: Estudis sobre la crisi social i econòmica de la baixa edat media. 2 vols. Colleció estudis i documents 20-21. Barcelona: Edicions 62, s.a., 1973. Solano Costa, Fernando. Notas para una biografía del Arzobispo Don Juan de Aragón, administrador de la Archdiócesis de Zaragoza. Zaragoza: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 1970. Soler, Bonifacio. “Extinción de los ermitaños de Montserrat.” Revista montserratina 5 (1911): 423-478. Staubach, Nikolaus. “Gerhard Zerbolt von Zutphen und die Apologie der Lainlektüre in der Devotio moderna.” Edited by Thomas Kock and Rita Schlusemann. Gesselshaft, Kultur, und Schrift Mediävistische Beiträge 5, 221-290. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997. Stewart, Columba. Cassian the Monk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

352

---. “From λόγος to verbum: John Cassian’s Use of Greek in the Development of a Latin Monastic Vocabulary.” In The Joy of Learning and the Love of God. Studies in Honor of Jean Leclerq, edited by Rozanne Elder, Cistercian Studies Series 160, 5-31. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995. ---. “The Desert Fathers on Radical Honesty about the Self.” Vox benedictina 8 (1991): 25-39. ---. Working the Earth of the Heart: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to AD 431. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Stock, Brian. Listening for the Text: On the Uses of the Past. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. Strand, Kenneth. “The Brethren of the Common Life and Fifteenth-Century Printing.” In Essays on the Northern Renaissance, edited by Kenneth A. Strand. Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Publishers, 1968. Suárez Fernández, Luis. Los Reyes Católicos. Barcelona: Ariel, 2004. ---. “El máximo religioso.” In Fernando II de Aragón, El Rey Católico, edited by Esteban Sarasa, 47-59. Zaragoza: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Institución «Fernando el Católico», 1996. ---. Política internacional de Isabel la Católica. 5 vols. Valladolid: Instituto “Isabel la Católica” de Historia Eclesiástica, 1965-1972. ---. “Fray Bernardo Boil, las negociaciones con Francia y la introducción de los Mínimos en España.” In Francesco di Paola. Chiesa e società del suo tempo, Atti del convegno internazionale di studio (Paola, 20 -24 maggio 1983), 424-432. Rome: Cura Generalizia dell’Órdine dei Minimi 1984. ---. “Reflexiones en torno a la fundación de San Benito de Valladolid.” In Homenaje a fray Justo Pérez de Urbel. Studia Silensia 3, 433-445. Silos: Abadia de Silos, 1976. Suárez Fernández, Luis, and Juan de Mata Carriazo Arroquia, eds. La España de los Reyes Católicos. 2 vols. Historia de España dirigida por Ramón Menéndez Pidal 17 Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1969. Swanson, Robert N. Indulgences in Late Medieval England. Passports to Paradise? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ---. “Praying for Pardon: Devotional Indulgences in Late Medieval England.” In Promissory Notes on the Treasury of Merits: Indulgences in Late Medieval Europe, edited by Robert N. Swanson, 215-240. Leiden: Brill, 2006. 353

---. “Letters of Confraternity and Indulgence in Late Medieval England.” Archives, The Journal of the British Records Association 25/102 (2000): 40-57. ---. Religion and Devotion in Europe, c.1215-c.1515. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Tassi, Ildefonso. Ludovico Barbo (1381-1443). Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1952. Terpstra, Nicholas. Lay Confraternities and Civic Religion in Renaissance Bologna. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Tillard, Jean-Marie. “Obéissance.” In Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique doctrine et histoire, edited by M. Viller, F. Cavallera and J. de Guibert. 17 vols., 11: cols. 535563. Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-1995. Sweet, Alfred. “The Apostolic See and the Heads of English Religious Houses.” Speculum 28/3 (1953): 468-484. Torre, Antonio de la. “Algunos datos sobre los comienzos de la reforma de Montserrat en tiempo de los Reyes Católicos.” Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 107 (1935): 441-494. Torres, J. “Voto.” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 10: cols. 547-567. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Torres Amat, Felix. Memorias para ayudar a formar un diccionario crítico de los escritores catalanes y dar alguna idea de la antigua y moderna literatura de Cataluña. Barcelona: J. Verdaguer, 1836. Trotzig, Aina. “The Iconography of the Enthroned Virgin with the Christ Standing in Her Lap.” In Images of Cult and Devotion: Function and Reception of Christian Images in Medieval and Post-Medieval Europe, edited by Soeren Kaspersen and Ulla Haastrup, 245-253. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004. Ulloa, Luis. “Esclarecimiento de algunos puntos dudosos en la vida de fray Bernardo de Boil.” Butlletí de l’Academia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona 16 (1933-1936): 17-30. Verbeke, Werner, Marcel Haverals, Rafaël de Keyser et alia. Serta Devota in memoria Guillelmi Lourdaux. Mediaevalia Lovaniensia 22. Louvain: University of Louvain, 1992. Vicens Vives, Jaime. Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de Fernando II de Aragón. Zaragoza: Institución “Fernando el Católico” (C.S.I.C.) de la Excma. Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza, 1962.

354

---. Juan II de Aragón (1398-1479). Monarquia y revolución en la España del siglo XV. Barcelona: Editorial Teide, 1953. ---. Ferran II i la ciutat de Barcelona, 1479-1516. 2 vols. Barcelona: Tipografia Emprorium, s.a., 1936-1937. Vilallonga Vives, M. “La literature llatina a Mallorca al segle XV: Arnau Descós.” In Homenatge a Miquel Dolç. Actes del XII simposi de la Secció Catalana i de la Secció Balear de la SEEC, Palma 1 al 4 de febrer de 1996, edited by M. del C. Bosch and M.A. Fornés, 513-518. Palma de Mallorca: Sociedad Española de Estudios Clásicos, 1997. Villanueva, Jaime. Viage literario á las iglesias de España. 22 vols. Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1803-1852. Vindel, Francisco. El arte tipográfico en España durante el siglo XV. 9 vols. Madrid: Ministerio de la Cultura, 1945-51. Vivian, Tim. “Mountain and Desert: The Geographies of Early Coptic Monasticism.” Coptic Church Review 12 (1991): 15-21. Vogüe, Adalbert de. The Rule of Saint Benedict, a Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary. Translated by John Baptist Hasbrouck. Cistercian Studies Series 54. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1983. ---. Community and Abbot in the Rule of Saint Benedict. Translated by Charles Philippi. Cistercian Studies Series 51. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1979. ---. “Professione: La professione in Occidente (sec. IV-IX).” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 7: cols. 904-916. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Warren, Nancy B. Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later Medieval England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Watanabe, Morimichi. “Nicolaus Cusanus, Monastic Reform in the Tyrol and the De visione dei.” In Concord and Reform: Nicholas of Cusa and Legal and Political Thought in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Thomas M. Izbicki and Gerald Christianson, 181-198. Ashgate: Variorum, 2001. ---. “Nicholas of Cusa and the Tyrolese Monasteries: Reform and Resistance.” In Concord and Reform: Nicholas of Cusa and Legal and Political Thought in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Thomas M. Izbicki and Gerald Christianson, 133-153. Ashgate: Variorum, 2001.

355

Wathan, Ambrose. “Conversatio and Stability in the Rule of Benedict.” Monastic Studies 11 (1975): 1-44. Watrigant, Henri. “La méditation méthodique et l’école des Frères de la Vie Commune.” Revue d’ascétique et de mystique 3 (1922): 134-155. ---. Quelques promoteurs de la méditation méthodique au XVe siècle. Collection de la Bibliothèque Des Exercices de Saint Ignace 59. Enghien: Bibliothèque des exercices, 1919. ---. La méditation fondamentale avant saint Ignace. Enghien: Bibliothèque des exercices, 1907. Weick, Roger. Late Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, 1350-1525, in the Houghton Library. Cambridge, MA: Department of Print and Graphic Arts, Harvard College Library, 1983. White, Helen C. The Tudor Books of Private Devotion. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1951. Williams-Krapp, Werner. “The Erosion of a Monopoly: German Religious Literature in the Fifteenth Century.” In The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval Religious Literature, edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Bradley Warren, 238-259. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Winston-Allen, Anne. Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania University Press, 1997. Winandy, J. “Professione: La professione degli eremiti.” In Dizionario degli insituti di perfezione, edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. 10 vols., 7: 965-968. Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1974-2003. Witters, Willibrord. “Le rédaction primitive des déclarations et constitutions de la Congégration de Sainte Justine de Padoue (XVe s.).” Studia monastica 7 (1965): 127-146. Zaragoza i Pascual, Ernesto. Història de la Congregació Benedictina Claustral Tarraconense (1215-1835). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2004. ---. Els ermitans de Montserrat. Història d’una institució benedictina singular. Subsidia monastica 20. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1993. ---. “Monjes profesos de Montserrat (1493-1833).” Studia monastica 33/2 (1991): 329-378. ---. “Una bula de Montserrat incunable y desconocida (1499).” Hispania sacra 41 (1989): 79-86.

356

---. “La observancia casinense en Cataluña (1435-1523).” Analecta sacra tarraconensia 61/2 (1988-1989): 333-360. ---. Los generales de la Congregación de San Benito de Valladolid: Los priores (1390-1499). Burgos: Imprenta de Aldecoa, 1973. Zarco-Bacas y Cuevas, Eusebio-Julián, ed. Catálogo de los manuscritos catalanes, gallegos y portugueses de la Biblioteca de El Escorial. 3 vols. Madrid: Imprenta Helenica, 19241929.

357