“Oblates in
Western Monasticism”
by Derek G. Smith
Whatever the outward historical
form oblature has taken--and it has taken many
outward forms-its first and essential reality is a commitment to the monastic
tradition of prayer and its generous silence. Its second purpose, almost
inseparable from the first, is to seek to share that tradition of prayer and
that profound gift of silence with the whole people of God. Unless that
commitment and motivation are pursued, oblates lose their reason for existence as
lay affiliates of monasticism who have promised their lives to the cultivation
and sharing of those ideals. His prayer and his oblation, as the oblate soon
discovers if only obscurely, are formed within a role [1] in the monastic
community, a role which has had a vigorous, varied and tenacious history since
the origin of monasticism.
There are many issues which
attract one's attention when oblation is examined within a comprehensive
historical view. Among them are at least these four: (1) the origin and practice
of infant oblation, which quite apparently and despite its changing forms, has
provided the basic definition for many (perhaps most) roles of lay affiliation
in western monastic history; (2) the question of whether oblation of an infant
is binding on that infant on reaching the "years of discretion"; (3)
the effect of practices in the oblation of infants which have affected the
development of the role of adult oblates; and (4) the relationship of lay
oblation to monastic profession. These questions deserve to be treated in a
comprehensive single study in English. Excellent studies of particular problems
and specific periods in the history of monastic oblation have been made by
European monastic scholars. [2] In English these matters have largely been
treated in passim in larger works. [3] The purpose of this paper is to suggest
the desirability of carrying out a historically comprehensive work in the
English language on oblation and its varied influences in monastic history. [4]
With the help and support of the monastic community with which I am affiliated,
I hope to attempt such a work.
In early Eastern and Western
Monasticism, most monks were laymen. Clerics and priests were ordained from
among them at the need of the. community, although a few clerics sought entry
to the monastic state. Clerics from outside the community, despite the general
injunction to treat a guest as if he were Christ Himself, [5] were treated with
a measure of suspicion, or at least reticence. [6] Some clerics returned to the
lay state before seeking entrance. [7] The norm and the practice was that the
majority of those who entered the monastic life were adult laymen. Children
were present in some early monasteries, if only by toleration. Children were to
be found in St. Anthony's monasteries; Evagrius
forbade their presence; but the Regula of both Pachomius and St. Basil not only presume the presence of
children, they provide for their acceptance as child oblates. [8] Both Rules
allow the child oblate a choice on their reaching the "years of
discretion", either of returning to the world or proceeding to the status
of monk-novice. Despite St. Benedict's general approval of the Rule of St.
Basil and his commendation of it to be read by his monks (Regula
Benedicti (RB) cap. 73) St. Benedict's approach to
child oblation was quite different, both from his predecessors Pachomius and St. Basil, but also from his near
contemporaries Saint Caesarius (AD 470-543) and Aurelian (ob. 551 or,553). [9] The Regula
Benedicti (cap. 59) clearly envisions child oblation
as binding for life. The oblate retains no disposition of his person, for his
destiny is "stability" in the monastic community in which he was
offered by his parents. There is no question of the oblate having a right or opportunity
to confirm or ratify his oblation when he comes of age. De Vogue [10] argues
very cogently that oblation here is a form of profession, and entails
renunciation of property (and, by implication, the freedom to marry) (cf. RB
caps. 32-34, 59). [11]
Not only does RB's
provisions for oblates differ from earlier Eastern Rules [12], they also differ
from contemporary Western monastic Rules, especially the Regula
Magistri (RM). [13] RM (cap. 91) provides only for
oblation of children of the nobility; RB provides for oblation of children of
both the rich and the poor. More significantly, RM cap. 91, in contrast to RB
(cap. 59), appears to allow adolescents to reaffirm their oblation as a matter
of free choice. RM also provides several alternatives for the disposition of an
oblate's property.
Benedict's position is upheld and
affirmed repeatedly by Latin Church authorities, at least for a time. [14] But
the question of the binding quality of infant oblation to monastic
"stability" (and by implication poverty and chastity) became a
contentious issue within only a few years of St. Benedict's death. In practice,
infant oblation ceased completely only in the 12th century. Meanwhile, several
synods and councils reaffirm what is essentially St. Benedict's position: e.g.
the Synod of Orleans (A.D. 549), canon 19; the Synod of Micon
(A.D. 583), canon 12; the IVth Synod of
But by A.D. 817, under the
influence of Benedict of Aniane, the capitulary of
It is out of this debate that adult oblation
seems to have evolved-gradually, and admittedly under the impact of yet other
influences. By the 9th century, Celtic monasticism had substantial impact on
continental practices. [19] Celtic monasticism bore resemblances to older
Eastern monastic traditions and to the monasticism of
The monastic familia of
However, at
Roughly contemporary with these events at
St. Romuald's laybrothers were never called "monks", unlike the
"lay monks" of Eastern tradition. His laybrothers
as Greenia [32] shows occupied an authentic monastic
role quite clearly distinguished from that of the monk. The Rule followed by
his monks and laybrothers was that of St. Benedict.
Not far from Camaldoli
was the hermitage of Fonte Avellana
under St. Peter Damian as prior (he always refused to be called
"abbot" [33]). Like his acquaintance St. Romuald
he too had an eremitical preference. He had founded some cenobitic
communities and had governed others. His laybrothers'
role at Fonte Avellana was
likely modelled on that of St. Romuald's
Camaldoli.
In the Benedictine foundation of Vallombrosa, not far from either Camaldoli
or Fonte Avellana, laybrothers were also introduced. St. Romuald
is known to have had an influence on this organization. St. John Gualbert, the founder of Vallombrosa,
called his laybrothers conversi.
Although the term had been used sporadically before, his usage became the
conventional way of referring to laybrothers in
oblation during medieval times. [34]
St. Bruno, with the approval and urging of his
friend Pope Urban 11 introduced conversi to
Chartreuse in A.D. 1084, and about the same time they were introduced to the
Abbey of Hirsau in the
But these events so far described were only a
small-scale and rather local experimentation in the institution of adult oblate
laybrothers. It was among the Cistercians that oblate
laybrotherhood was massively developed and integrated
into monastic organization and spirituality. [36] Although at
Since the 10th century, a "para-monastic" communitarian movement of lay people
had been developing and becoming more visible in
As lay communities, Béguinages
did not have "religious vows", but they observed chastity, obedience,
and poverty, and a form of a promise of "stability" in the houses to
which they were attached. Entrance to the Béguinage
was through a novitiate of up to two years, after which came the clothing in
the Béguine habit. [46] Theirs was a humble life of
contemplative prayer, silence, and austerity. The Béguines
were not Benedictines in the sense of living under the Rule, but Benedictine
monasticism and spirituality had a marked effect on their institutions. They
were not the first, and far from the last, of a great series of "paramonastic" lay communities extending at least from
the Celtic Penitential communities of the 7th and 8th centuries to the oblate
communities of the present day.
Throughout the storms of heresies and excesses of
the 13th and 14th centuries, and throughout the following Protestant
Reformation there were many lay people who led lives of real monastic spiritual
vitality, very often in the ambit of the monastic and religious orders but not
within them. Two prominent women among them were St. Catherine of
If one seeks a definitive common characteristic
in all the vocations of laybrothers, a fundamental
trait is... always the consecration of a life of service... which necessarily
implies for the laybrother a spirituality founded in
humility, an imitation of the hidden life of Our Lord, a certain simplicity of
life similar to that of the Holy Family at
It is a question of what lay people seek and
expect to find in the monastery-and that is a life of silent, simple, humble
prayer and the true familial fraternity they very often cannot find "in
the world." Surely this is as true of the oblate-extern as of the
oblate-intern. It appears that whenever monastic institutions have changed their
priorities such that the life of simple prayer is supplanted by elaborate
liturgy, by preoccupation with teaching in schools, by preoccupation with the
cultivation of land and wealth, and even by the subordination of prayer to
commendable works of mercy, then active monastic participation by lay people
has waned.
An interesting, if somewhat aberrant example, is
that of the military orders (Knights Templars and the
Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem) [51]
"Unthinkable in the time of Charlemagne and a mere historical memory by
the time of Chaucer," [52] these non-clerical religious communities of
laymen began propitiously enough, leading a simple and prayerful life under the
Rule of St. Benedict and the Cistercian Uses recommended to them by St. Bernard
of Clairvaux (in the case of the Knights Templar) and
the Rule of St. Augustine (the case of the Knights Hospitallers).
Very quickly, with their rapid rise to power and wealth and the eventual
subordination of their monastic practices to a frankly military organization
and mentality, they had sown the seeds of their own destruction. Certainly by
the 14th century, monasticism had passed into an autumn of decline and
disrepute amid the drastic changes in European society following such traumatic
events as the Black Death and the Hundred Years War. But societal conditions
were by no means the only, or even the most important events in the decline of
monasticism. Spiritually weakened by the loss of the primacy of prayer in their
way of life, encumbered by elaborate liturgical developments inimical to the
simplicity and humility of the traditional ethos of monastic culture, and
shackled by landed wealth on the one hand and hamstrung by political
allegiances to the monarchs and nobility of Europe on the other, monasticism
was rapidly approaching a nadir. Accordingly, anticlerical, antisacramental,
and specifically antimonastic movements had been
developing in the church since at least the late 12th century. They were marked
by fervent lay piety, a love for scripture in the vernacular and for preaching
and prayer meetings, as well as works of mercy. Some of these lay movements,
now lacking the traditional support and direction of monastic community and
prayer, drifted quickly into heterodoxy and outright heresy (e.g. the Albigenses and Waldenses of
France,
When St. Francis began his active pursuit of the
evangelical life, he attached himself as a lay oblate to the
St. Dominic's Order of Preachers and St. Francis'
Friars Minor were "twins at birth" although their institutes
"had neither a common origin nor a common design." [61] St. Dominic
began his career of preaching against heresy (especially that of the Albigensians) as a secular canon. He intended to constitute
his movement of clerical followers under the Rule of St. Augustine since the
Lateran Council of AD 1215 had issued its decree on the regularization of
religious orders. Under the influence of the Franciscans, however, he
eventually adopted a mendicant rule. In contrast to the Franciscans, however,
St. Dominic's early converts were strictly monastic in character, drawing
heavily on the Uses of Prémontré. His unique
contribution was to mould the monastic life towards his main aim, which was
doctrinal preaching. Liturgy and all other observances were subordinated to
this end. While the Dominican movement sought to preserve and extend scholastic
systematic theology, it does not appear to have been the intention to
subordinate spirituality and mysticism to it. In fact, however, ironically
enough, the pursuit of doctrinal theology as a goal probably contributed to the
chasm which opened between theology and spirituality by the 14th century, an 4
'unbelievable rupture". [62] The relevant point for us is what this
rupture, this truly regrettable divorce, meant for the spiritual care of the
laity. Certainly speaking from a monastic point of view, but one which we
share, Jean Leclercq's [63] assessment is that the
theologian became a specialist in an autonomous field of knowledge... The
spiritual man, on the other hand, became a dévot who
cared nothing for theology, one for whom his own experience ultimately became
an end in itself, without reference to the dogmatic content to be sought in it.
There were still to be some remarkable
contributions from great masters of spirituality which succeeded in maintaining
a balance between what we may call "mysticism" and theology-Denys the Carthusian, Nicholas of
Cusa, William of Digulleville,
to cite three examples-but the polarization of theology and traditional
monastic spirituality was by now virtually complete. [64] It was a situation
which would hardly have pleased St. Thomas Aquinas. A century before him,
Richard of St. Victor, the mystical Scot, had defined contemplation as libera mentis perspicacia in sapientiae cum adoratione suspensa ("the clear gaze of a free spirit, suspended
in wonder, on the marvels of wisdom").
We have now seen some of the consequences for lay
spirituality of the decline and disrepute of a monasticism which had almost
lost its priceless heritage of meditative prayer in its re-ordered priorities
and in its secular entanglements. We have also seen some of the consequences,
for lay spirituality of what the new orders had to offer. We must now indicate
briefly an important trend in spirituality which, while located outside the
monasteries and explicitly anti-conventual, managed
(again ironically) to preserve the essential treasure of traditional monastic
prayer and to pass it on to a great extent through the laity to modern
monasticism.
In the last decades of the 14th century, masters
of prayer as diverse as Catherine of Siena, Gerard Groot,
and the so-called "English Mystics" appeared at the same time, but
quite independently of any contact with each other. Despite real differences,
they were united by a combined distrust for abstract theological speculation
and for traditional religious life (whether monastic or conventual).
They were not, however, disdainful of the intellect; they had an appreciation
of the real contributions of the Fathers, monastic writers, and the
schoolmen-they turned to all of these, not for finished answers, but for
authentic direction; and they were above all faithful to the community of the
Church despite their feeling that the monastic and conventual
orders had failed in their spirituality.
Although Catherine of Siena was a Dominican
tertiary, she is reported to have said, "My cell will not be one of stone,
but that of selfknowledge." [66] She was very
much directed by what she called "an interior Master", and not by
"a system of concepts, an arrangement of formulas, a solemn din of
words." [67] Many found her self-assurance and imperious manner
disconcerting- she constantly corrects and admonished her many correspondents
"in the name of Christ" or "in the precious blood of
Christ", and is said to have been irascible and volatile in her manner.
Her notable Dialogues, and also some Letters and Prayers preserve what we know
of her teaching. [68] Despite her distrust of the monastic and conventual traditions, her love of the Church pervades
virtually every aspect of her Dialogues. This aspect of her work sounds a
cautionary note to all who would dabble in spiritual and mystical matters
without the community of the People of God, by which the Holy Spirit of God
instructs, admonishes, purifies, supports, enlightens, and guides those who
seek. Him. Without her deep ecclesial sense, Catherine's repudiation of
monastic and conventual community could easily have
led her as far astray as, for example, Margery Kempe
(obiit AD 1440). [69] Jean Leclercq
[70] wonders, quite justifiably, whether "she is not a case for a
psychiatrist rather than a theologian"--or would have benefitted
from a soundly based Master of prayer. Other contemplatives of this period were
decidedly solitary or eremitical, as we see for example the Ancrene
Riwle [71] an English book of contemplative piety, or
the Regula Reclusorum Angliae [72], a practical instruction for lay recluses
which is not only antimonastic and anticonventual, but even antiprelatical,
if not indeed generally anticlerical! Composed about AD 1280, it seems to have
been composed by a disaffected Augustinian canon.
The eremitical inclination of the English
Mystics, with all its pitfalls and potential dangers, is also to be seen in the
contemplative works of Richard Rolle (obiit AD 1349), The Fire of Love, [73] The Form of Perfect
Living, [74] and the Melos Amoris.
[75] His work despite the fact that he had been a Doctor of Theology at the
Sorbonne, is remarkably free from scholastic theory and abstract speculative
ideas. Rolle admits that contemplation is an act of
intellect, but repeatedly asserts the primacy of its object and not its means
or technique-its object being participation in the love of the Trinity
expressed in its divine Persons and their processions, a view very close to
that of the great modern insight of Henri le Saux,
[76] and remarkably consistent with the ancient tradition of monastic prayer
extending through John Cassian and St. Benedict.
Since Rolle lived the life of an independent
solitary, he seldom mentions the necessity of spiritual guidance. His was an
"interior Master", whom he quite naturally associated with the Holy
Spirit. The danger here, however, is that the home of the Holy Spirit is the
Church (not the individual), and estrangement from the body of the Church may
entail a distorted sense of the Holy Spirit and His proper action. For example,
Rolle continually draws an opposition between the two
activities of loving God and loving one's brother. Accentuating the primacy of
the love of God so far as to warn contemplatives that fraternal charity may distract
them from the prayer. [77] Dangerously close to a repudiation of Jesus' summary
of the law of love, such a conception is quite alien to the traditional
monastic view of love and prayer. Rolle's comparison
of the fruits of perfect contemplation to bodily sensations is also alien to
the monastic view, although common enough in the later mystics.
Probably the greatest work of this period is the
anonymous "Cloud of Unknowing" [78] and other related treatises. This
remarkable work shows a real ecclesial sense for orthodoxy, for the role of
sacrament and the fellowship of the Church and for spiritual guidance. For the
Cloud, the way to God is that of love--a 'fully good and holy love' which is
more balanced than that advocated by Rolle. It is a
love which reached both God and one's neighbor. Contemplative love, in order to
pierce the "cloud of unknowing" (a vocabulary which anticipates the
"divine darkness" of
This brief diversion away from the question of
Benedictine oblature to a consideration of
contemplatives who have rejected monastic roles and conventions indicates a
subject for further study. We note evidence of distinctive consequences for lay
spirituality. Much of the written work on oblature is
essentially constitutional and canonical. Regrettably, rather less attention
has been given to the conceptual issues of oblate and lay spirituality within
the monastic tradition.
Benedictine oblates were more or less numerous in
European monasteries until about 1780. The Benedictine Order was reduced to
about eight small houses in
It is true that the number of oblates began to
decrease in the wake of post-Vatican 11 changes in the Church and in religious
institutions. But there is a marked trend for oblature
to be revived in communities which are open and receptive, and in which the
"return to sources" advocated by Vatican II has led to a serious
commitment to simple, humble monastic prayer. It is yet another example of the
historical trend all have noted for oblature to be
revived when monastic reform has led to a rediscovery, or rearticulation,
of the ancient (generally pre-medieval) tradition which presents a prospect of
a simple life of prayer lived out in generous familial fraternity. The
biography of such a movement in a monastery of our time is tellingly and
touchingly recorded in John Main's "Letters from the Heart". [83]
A historical review of oblature
may be very helpful in the reconstruction of monastic communities. We have seen
how oblature has been remarkably responsive to the
spiritual needs of the times, and has always cherished the precious legacy of
monastic prayer. Consider the variety of legitimate roles and functions that oblature provided in the Cluniac familia, in large cenobia, in
small priories, in eremitical orders. It has shown a remarkable elasticity--not
a shapelessness, but a creative response to the needs of a particular situation
interpreted through a vital tradition. The Oblate may live for life in monastic
communities as mortui mundo,
having given himself and his property to the community without reservation (a plenus oblatus, a persona ecclesiastica). He may face the challenge of living
"in the world" by the principles of the Rule in fraternal union and
affiliation with the monastic community. This is the option that probably most
oblates in history have taken. It allows for a diversity of accommodations to
persons and situations. Perhaps it is now time to consider yet another option
which has recurred in history, and may have much to offer prayerful people in
our time--the creation of residential communities of Oblates of St. Benedict
who may minister to their fellows in a new monasticism to a world crying out
for the silent, generous prayer which it has to offer. The free and supple
structure of oblature adapts well to a wide variety
of religious temperament and social circumstance. It seems to present marvelous
and large opportunities for the life of intensive Christian meditation and
prayer; it is a rich inheritor of, and contributor to, the life of evangelical
humility and simplicity envisioned by Our Holy Father Benedict, a man of God
for all times." [84]
Footnotes:
1. Here we mean "role" much in the
sense that it would be used in sociology--a pattern of behaviour,
with a repertoire of expectations and obligations, characteristic of an
individual located in a determinate social structure. The definition is clumsy;
the idea is simple-but the definition is worth noting here, since the word
"role" will occur throughout this paper.
2. Of the several dozen pieces of work on oblature and lay affiliation from the monastic scholarship
of the last century, the following have been found to be very useful: Paul Galtier, art. "Conversi",
Dictionnaire de SpiritualW
Tome 11 Partie 2, cols. 2224 ff. Paris: Beauchesne, 1949-1953; E. Adda,
"Penitents ruraux communautaires
en Italie au XII si&le",
R~vue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique Tome XLIX ( 1954), pp. 344 ff.; Avon, "Gli oblati secolari
de San Benedetto," Rivista
Storica Benedettina t. XIV
( 1932), pp. 10 1 - 124; U. Berliere, Les oblats de Saint-Benoit au Moyen
Age," Messager des Fideles
Tome 111 (1886), pp. 55-61, 107-111, 156-160, 209-220, 249-255; J. Uttenweiler, art. " Oblaten,
" Lexikon ftir Theologie und Kirche Band 7 cols.
658-659. Frei bu rg- i m- Breisgau:
Herder, 1935;
3. Cf. eg. David
Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the
Constitutional History of the Religious Orders.
4. At this stage we can take no firm position on
the vexed argument among certain monastic historians whether laybrotherhood evolved out of the institutions of infant oblature, or whether it was largely a new creation of the
11th century. I do in fact lean to the former position, but it cannot be denied
that very learned monastic scholars lean to the latter position (eg. K. Hallinger, Maurice Laporte, Walter Franke).
5. Cf. ef. Reguld Benedicti cap. 53.1, 7,
15. All references to the Regula Benedicti
in this paper are to Timothy Fry et al., RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in
Latin and English with Notes.
6. Cf. eg. RB cap. 60.
7. It is reputed that in early monastic times,
clerics presented themselves for admission to monasteries as laymen. The
motivation was one of humility. This also oc cured in
the 11th and 12th centuries during the florescence of the institution of the conversi (cf. Greenia, op. cit.,
p. 44; Lekai, op. cit., 334-344).
8. Henri Leclercq, op.
cit., cols. 1857-1858; William Smith and Samuel art. "Oblati
(Monastici)". A Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities.
9. Henri Leclercq,
ibid; cf. also Guy de Valous, Le Monachisme
Clunisien des Origines au XVe Siecle Tome I (Paris: Picard, 1970, p. 40).
10. de Vogue, op. cit., pp. 1355-1368.
11. de Vogue, op. cit., pp. 951-977 (esp. pp.
962-970), treats this question extensively. Not all would agree with his
treatment of the question.
12. de Vogue, op. cit., pp. 1365-1368 makes some
tantalizing contrasts between oblature in RB and in
the oriental tradition.
13. as with all of his treatment of RB, de Vogue
is strongly influenced by appreciation of RM-cf. eg. de Vogiid, op. cit., pp.
951-970.
14. Hallinger, op.
cit.; P. Galtier, art. "Freres,"
cols. 1193-1207; Henri Leclercq, op. cit., cols.
1857-1863.
15. Henri Leclercq, op.
cit., cols. 1859-1860.
16. Henri Leclercq, op.
cit., cols. 1857-1861; Smith and Cheetham, op. cit.;
de Valous, op. cit. , pp. 40-4 1.
17. Henri Leclercq, op.
cit., cols. 1860-1863.
18. Henri Leclercq, op.
cit., cols 1861-1867 treats the Carolingian situation in some detail. He
includes oblation documents from cartularies of the period. However, Lackner's treatment of the Carolingian period-Bede Lackner, The
Eleventh-Century Background of Citeaux,
19. Valuable background to Celtic Monasticism is
to be found in J.F.Kenney, The Sourcesfor
the Early History of Ireland vol. I
20. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 49-51.
21. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., p. 51, citing with approval P. Galtier,
"Penitents et 'convertis'," Revue dHistoire Ecclesiastique Tome
XXXIII (1937), 1-26, 277-305.
22. Cf. de Valous, op.
cit., pp. 44-50; José Mattoso, Le Monachisme
Iberique et Cluny. Louvain: Publications Universitaires
de Louvain, 1968, pp. 228-235.
23. Conrad Greenia, op.
cit., pp. 39-40
24. Cf. de Valous, op.
cit., pp. 27-54; Jean Leclercq, op. cit., pp.
103-110; Bede Lackner, op.
cit., pp. 40-91; an older, but still usefull source
on Cluny is Joan Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny 910-1157. Cambridge University Press, 1931.
25. de Valous, op.
cit., p. 42
26. de Valous, op.
cit., p. 43.
27. Bede Lackner, op. cit., p. 66; It should be noted, however, that
it was the same Abbot William of Hisrau (ob. 1091)
who did much to give a precise status to claustral
oblates, and to "secular oblates" who lived "in the world"
in affiliation with a monastery. The oblation of the "secular oblate"
included a promise of obedience, sometimes also of chastity, and entailed the
transmission of at least part of their possessions to the monastery (Alcuin Deutsch, Manual for Oblates of St. Benedict,
Collegeville, Minn.: St. John's Abbey Press, 1937, p. 21).
28. de Valous, op.
cit., pp. 42-48; Mattoso, op. cit., 228-235.
29. de Valous, ibid.; Mattoso, ibid. It is worth noting at this point that there
was a large number of terms for child oblates, adult oblates, laybrothers, and other lay monastic affiliates. Some of the
terms are synonymous, but others indicate shades of meaning which help
considerably to clarify our understanding of lay roles in monastic
institutions. A valuable analysis could be made of these terms, especially if
they could be located in their Sitz iin Leben (to borrow a phrase
from biblical criticism) rather than simply defining them in abstracto. A good start might be made with the aid of
Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium
Mediae et Infirmae Latinafis (Reprint of 1883-1887 edition), Graz: Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt ( 10 vol.), 1954. We cannot even begin such
an analysis here, but the following list of terms (certainly not complete)
gives some notion of the complexity: oblati, conversi, idiotae, juveneti, matricularii, oblati barbati, laici, dati, donati,
condonati, fralri barbati, frati illiterati, nutriti, affiliati, addicti, servi, monachi laici, conversi, conversi barbati, conversi illiterati, relaici, adjuvae conversorum, vicarii conversoruin, pueri, infantes, adolescentiores, traditi, commissio, Deo sacratae, Deodicatae,
devotae, familiares, fratres sed non inonachi, fratelli, and many
others.
30. For the history of eleventh century
developments other than those at Cluny, cf. eg. Jean Leclercq, op. cit., pp.
40-115; Greenia, op. cit.; Bede
Lackner, op. cit., pp. 168-176; Laporte,
op. cit. cols. 1195-1204; Mattoso, op. cit.
31. Bede Lackner, op. cit., p. 168.
32. Conrad Grebnia, op.
cit.
33. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 117-118.
34. P. Galtier, art.
"Conversi," Dictionnaire
de Spiritualite Tome 11 Partie
2, cols. 2218-2224. Paris: Beauchesne, 1949-1953.
35. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 110-119; Bede Lackner,
op. cit., pp. 50, 66.
36. Louis J. Lekai, op.
cit., esp. pp. 334-346; Jean Leclercq, op. cit., pp.
187-220; David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A
Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders, Oxford: Clarendon,
1966, esp. Ch. IV "The Cistercians"; Placide
Deseilles, "Freres Cisterciens," Dictionnaire
de Spiritualité Tome V. Paris: Beauchesne,
1964.
37. David Knowles, op. cit., p. 28.
38. David Knowles, ibid.
39. Rievaulx had over
600 laybrothers-cf. David Knowles, The Monastic Order
in England. 2nd. ed. Cambridge University Press, 1963; David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius, p. 30.
40. David Knowles, From Pachomius
to Ignatius, p. 29.
41. Bede Lackner, "Appendix 1, Early Cistercian Documents in
Translation", pp. 442-466, in Louis J. Lekai,
The Cistercians, Kent State University Press, 1977, p. 459.
42. Maurice Laporte,
op. cit. col. 1201.
43. David Knowles, From Pachomius
to Ignatius, p. 33.
44. J. Van Mierlo,
"Béguins, Béguines, Béguinages,- Dictionnaire de Spiritualité Tome I Partie 2,
cols. 1341-1352. Paris: Beauchesne, 1949-1953; Jean Leclercq, op. cit., pp. 353-364.
45.Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 362-363, 376-378, 379-388.
46. J. Van Mierlo, op.
cit., col. 1348.
47. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 449-505; M. Monaco, art. "Frances of Rome, St.," New
Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967, p. 25; P.J. Lugano, "L'instituzione delle Oblate di Tor de' Specchi, secondo; documenti," Rivista Storica Benedettina XIV (1923), pp. 272-308.
48. Maurice Laporte,
op. cit., col. 1201.
49. cf also Louis J. Lekai, The Rise of the Cistercian Strict Observance in
Seventeenth Century France. Washington: The Catholic University of America
Press, 1968.
50. Maurice Laporte,
op. cit., 1202
51. cf. eg. David
Knowles, "Twelfth Century Developments," Ch. V in From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional
History of the Religious Orders. Oxford: Clarendon, 1966, pp. 31-40.
52. David Knowles, op. cit., p. 36.
53. cf. Jean Leclercq,
"Lay Spirituality in the Twelfth Century," in The Spirituality of the
Middle Ages ed. Jean Leclercq, Franqois
Vandenbrouche and Louis Bouyer.
London: Burns and Oates, 1968, pp. 243-282; David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius (Ch. V1, "The Friars
Minor"). Oxford: Clarendon, 1966, pp. 41-48; Willibrord
de Paris, "Freres Franciscains,"
Dictionnaire de Spiritualité
Tome V. Beauchesne: Paris, 1964, cols. 1210-1217. 54.
Jean Leclercq, "The Franciscan Spring," in
The Spirituality of the Middle Ages, op. cit., pp. 283-314.
55. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 288-290.
56. Useful works in considering Franciscan
constitutional history and their emphasis on the lay role model may be found
in: Blaze Gitzen, "The Early Capuchin Lay
Brother," Round Table of Franciscan Research vol. X1 (1945), pp. 9-18;
Alessandro da Ripabottoni.
I fratelli laici nel pritno ordine
francescano. Rome, 1956; art. " De instructione fratrum laicorum," Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum vol. Ll (1935), pp. 22 ff.; Vigilio de
Valstagna, "Littera de
fratribus laicis," Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum vol. Llll (1937),
pp. 117-134; Clement of Milwaukee, "De fratribus
laicis ordinis nostri," Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum vol. LXXV
(1959), fascicles 10-11. David Knowles, "The Friars Minor," op. cit.
and Jean Leclercq, "The Franciscan Spring,"
op. cit. provide useful summary discussions of the Franciscan movement,
although there is great merit still in the monumental article by F. Ehrle, "Die altesten Reclactionen der Generalconstitutionen der Franziskanerordens, "Archiv flir Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte Band V1, pp. 1-138.
57. For a text of this rule, cf. B. Bughetti, ed., "Manuale Propositi Fratrum et Sororum de Penitentia in dornibus propriis existentium" (orig. AD 1221), Arch. franc. hist. Tome XIV (1921), pp. 109-121.
58. Although they are not, according to
subsequent canonical decision, members of the Benedictine Order.
59. the preferred Benedictine usage.
60. the preferred usage of later religious
orders, perhaps especially the Dominicans and the Society of Jesus.
61. David Knowles, "The Order of
Preachers," Ch. VI in From Pachomius to
Ignatius,, A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1966, p. 49.
62. Jean Leclercq's judgement; cf. "Laity and Clergy in the Thirteenth
Century," in Leclercq, op. cit., pp. 371-372,
405-406.
63. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit, p. 372.
64. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit. p. 371.
65. for a discussion of St. Thomas' views from a
traditional monastic perspective cf. Leclercq, op.
cit., pp. 335-336.
66. R. Gautier and L. Canet.
La Double Experience de Catherine Bemincasa. Paris,
1948, p. 60.
67. R. Gautier and L. Canet,
op. cit., p. 247.
68. on Catherine's spirituality cf. J. Wilbois, Sainte Catherine de Sienne
et L'Actualitié de Son Message, Tournai,
1948; M.S. Gillet, La Mission de Sainte Catherine de Sienne, Paris, 1946; M.H. Laurent, art. "Catherine de Sienne, "Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie EcclOsiastique Tome X1, cols. 1518-1524; A. Grion, Santa Catarina da Siena: Dottrina et Fonti. Brescia, 1953; as on other
matters of medieval spirituality, Jean Leclercq's judgements are admirable-cf. op.
cit., pp. 409-416.
69. Margery Kernpe's
autobiography written ca. AD 1436-1438 was not discovered until 1934, cf. The
Book of Margery Kempe, crit.
ed. S.B. Meech and H.E. Allen, London, 1940; K. Cholmondley, M.K.'s Genius and
Mystic, London, 1947; H.S. Bennett, "M.K. and the Holy Eucharist,
"Downside Review vol. LVI (1938), pp. 468-482.
70. Jean Leclercq, op.
cit., p. 426.
71. English editions are: TheAncreneRiwle
(2 vols.) ed. M. Day, London, 1952; The Ancrene
Riw1e, ed. A.C. Baugh, London, 1956.
72. "Regula Reclusorurn Angliae et Quaestiones tres de Vita Solitaria Saec. XIII-XIV, Antonianum IX ( 1934), pp. 37-84, 243-268; cf. also 1.
Foster, "The Book of the Anchorite," Proceedings of the British
Academy vol. XXXVI (1950), pp. 197-226.
73. Incendium Amoris, ed. M. Deanesley,
Manchester, 1915.
74. Die Traktate des
R.R. von Hampole "Incendium
Amoris" and "Emmendatio
Vitae" und deren Ubersetzung
durch Richard Mysin,
Leipzig, 1932, ed. E. Schnell
75. E. Arnould, The Melos Amoris of R.R. of Hampole, Oxford, 1957, cf. esp. Appendix 11, pp. 210-238.
76. Henri le Saux
(Swami Abhishiktananda) Saccidananda,
New Delhi, I.S.P.C.K., 1972.
77. Richard Rolle, The
Fire of Love, Book 1. Ch. 111.
78. crit. ed. by P.
Hodgson, London, 1944; a translation into modern English by Justin McCann,
London, 1936, remains of great value; cf. also David Knowles, "The
Excellence of the Cloud," Downside Review vol. 1,11 (1934), pp. 71-92.
79. cf. John Main, Word into Silence, Paulist Press, New York 1981; Christian Meditation: Prayer
in the Tradition of John Cassian; Monastic Prayer and
Modern Man, both published by the Benedictine Priory of Montreal; cf. also his Lettersfrom the Heart: Christian Monasticism and the
Renewal of Community. Crossroad: New York, 1982.
80. crit. ed. P.
Hodgson, London, 1955.
81. The Cloud of Unknowing ch.
Lll, cf. also passim in ch's
XLV, XLVI, XLVII, LI, LVIL
82. Oliver 1. Kapsner,
ed., A Benedictine Bibliography: An Author-Subject Union List, 2 vols., 2nd.
ed., Collegeville Minnesota: St. John's Abbey Press, 1962, cf. vol. 2 sec. XVI
pp. 395-398.
83. John Main, Letters from the Heart: Christian
Monasticism and the Renewal of Community. New York: Crossroad, 1982.
84. cf. the remarkable address delivered by Dom
Andr6 Louf, Cistercian Abbot of the Abbaye Sainte-Marie-du-Mont at
the Cathedral Church of Notre-Dame de Paris, December 16th, 1979, on the
occasion of the 1500th anniversary of St. Benedict. An English translation
appears as "Saint Benedict: A man of God for all Times," Cistercian
Studies Quarterly Review vol. XV no. 3 (1980), pp. 217-228.
Editor’s Note: This article first
appeared in MONASTIC STUDIES 13, Autumn 1982. Used with permission.
The World Community for Christian Meditation
www.wccm.org
3/8/03
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