The I.B.Tauris History of Monasticism by Evans G. R

The I.B.Tauris History of Monasticism by Evans G. R

Author:Evans, G. R.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I.B. Tauris


CHAPTER V

A new age of monastic experiment

i. A monastic explosion and some experiments

Adult entrants and monastic life as ‘retirement’

By the end of the eleventh century something new was beginning to happen. Suddenly, adults were choosing to enter monasteries which had previously received many of their future monks as child oblates.1 This trend away from giving infants to monasteries as child oblates to recruitment of adults was commented on by Guibert of Nogent, in whose generation in France it first seems to have become noticeable. At the beginning of his book ‘On my life’ (De Vita Sua), he mentions the contemporary fashion for mature adults to leave their military lives and retire to monasteries, often with their wives becoming nuns at the same time. Some reported experiencing a personal conversion.2 But if Guibert’s description is accurate, it seems it all became quite competitive. He sketches the nobles trying to outdo each other in giving up their property to monasteries and entering monasteries themselves, and monasteries trying to win more recruits than others. Noblewomen joined the competition, leaving their children as well as their husbands. Some did not go to such extremes but still gave generously, seeking to ‘equal’ the monastic way of living without actually becoming monks or nuns.3

Monks ad succurrendum formed a special category of mature entrant. These asked urgently to be professed when they were ill and feared death, so that they could be looked after in their last illness and also procure for themselves a stronger chance of going to heaven by dying as monks. Although they were allowed in in a hurry and sometimes just by monks who were called to the sickbed for the purpose, those who recovered could stay in the community as fully professed monks if they chose (though they were allowed to leave). One ageing nobleman who retired to the monastic life at Fly, a case Guibert may have known personally, is described by Guibert as having done so despite the resistance of his wife. He was placed in one of the cells provided for the elderly and infirm monks. He was so assiduous in prayer and attendance at worship and in tears that the other monks came to respect him greatly. But two devils came to visit him with temptations, one with red hair and a tonsure and in bare feet with straw between the toes, and the other in a black habit with a hood.4

There could be strong family feeling about this choice, whether made because of ‘conversion’ or in emergency because the family stood to lose control of property given to the monastery in return for taking in the sick or converted person.5

Some ex-military men founded their own communities. The Vita Herluini, the Life of the founder of Bec, describes how Herluin, who had spent his life as a knight, had found himself in danger in a battle. He swore that if he came out of it alive he would build a monastery on his family estates at Bec in Normandy.



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