Dark age nunneries : the ambiguous identity of female monasticism, 800-1050

"In Dark Age Nunneries, Steven Vanderputten dismantles the common view of women religious between 800 and 1050 as disempowered or even disinterested witnesses to their own lives. It is based on a study of primary sources from forty female monastic communities in Lotharingia--a politically and culturally diverse region that boasted an extraordinarily high number of such institutions. Vanderputten highlights the attempts by women religious and their leaders, as well as the clerics and the laymen and -women sympathetic to their cause, to construct localized narratives of self, preserve or expand their agency as religious communities, and remain involved in shaping the attitudes and behaviors of the laity amid changing contexts and expectations on the part of the Church and secular authorities. Rather than a "dark age" in which female monasticism withered under such factors as the assertion of male religious authority, the secularization of its institutions, and the precipitous decline of their intellectual and spiritual life, Vanderputten finds that the post-Carolingian period witnessed a remarkable adaptability among these women. Through texts, objects, archaeological remains, and iconography, Dark Age Nunneries offers scholars of religion, medieval history, and gender studies new ways to understand the experience of women of faith within the Church and across society during this era." -- Publisher's description List of Illustrations vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1. Setting the Boundaries for Legitimate Experimentation 11 2. Holy Vessels, Brides of Christ: Ambiguous Ninth-Century Realities 37 3. Transitions, Continuities, and the Struggle for Monastic Lordship 65 4. Reforms, Semi-Reforms, and the Silencing of Women Religious in the Tenth Century 88 5. New Beginnings 111 6. Monastic Ambiguities in the New Millennium 135 Conclusion 155 Appendix A: The Leadership and Members of Female Religious Communities in Lotharingia, 816–1059 159 Appendix B: The Decrees on Women Religious from the Acts of the Synod of Chalon-sur- Saône, 813, and the Council of Mainz, 847 167 Appendix C: Jacques de Guise’s Account of the Attempted Reform of Nivelles and Other Female Institutions in the Early Ninth Century 172 Appendix D: The Compilation on the Roll of Maubeuge, c. Early Eleventh Century 176 Appendix E: Letter by Abbess Thiathildis of Remiremont to Emperor Louis the Pious, c. 820s–840 183 Appendix F: John of Gorze’s Encounter with Geisa, c. 920s–930s 185 Appendix G: Extract on Women Religious from the Protocol of the Synod of Rome (1059) 189 Appendix H: The Eviction of the Religious of Pfalzel as Recounted in the Gesta Treverorum, 1016 192 Appendix I: The Life of Ansoaldis, Abbess of Maubeuge (d. 1050) 195 Appendix J: Letter by Pope Paschalis II to Abbess Ogiva of Messines (1107) 198 Notes 201 Bibliography 255 Index 301