Monasteries on the Borders of Medieval Europe (Conflict and Cultural Interaction)

As a historical and cultural phenomenon, monasticism always had a close connection with frontiers. The earliest monasteries were believed to be founded in wildernesses and deserts, thus existing beyond society and the inhabited world in general. As intercessors praying for their patrons and benefactors, monastic communities also existed on the border between the earthly and the spiritual worlds. In medieval Europe, however, the frontier nature of monasticism had specific manifestations in addition to the founding myths of monastic wilderness. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the expansion of Latin Europe in East-Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia, and into the Holy Land and Greece opened possibilities for extending monastic networks and establishing new houses. One of the most important parts of this process was the interaction between these new religious communities and the social world around them - an interaction that was characterised by various shades of hostility, cooperation, and adaptation to the local social and cultural framework. This is the first collection to consider the phenomenon of monastic frontiers in a cross-disciplinary manner. The book’s ten chapters explore the role of monasteries in maintaining political and cultural borders, in breaking and sustaining linguistic boundaries in late medieval Europe, as well as in building and stabilizing Latin Christian cultural identities on the northern and southern frontiers of Europe. Using a wide range of textual, archaeological, and material evidence, an international group of authors examines the expansion of monastic and mendicant networks in Scandinavia, Iberia, East-Central Europe, the British Isles, northern France, the Balkans, and Frankish Greece. Front Matter ("Title Page", "Copyright Page", "Table of Contents", "Illustrations", "Acknowledgements"), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. 1 Emilia Jamroziak, Karen Stöber https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101844 Piety, Politics, and Plunder across the Anglo-Welsh Frontier: Acquiring the Relics of Winifred and Beuno, p. 19 Brian Golding https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101845 Croatia and the Borders of Christianity: The Fortified Cistercian Abbey of Castrum Thopozka, p. 49 Ana Novak https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101846 Alvastra in Östergötland, Sweden: A Medieval Political and Religious Centre of Power, p. 81 Marie Holmström https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101847 Boundary Narratives and Tales of Teutonic Treachery on the Frontier of Latin Christendom: The Early Fourteenth-Century Disputes between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Ordensstaat, p. 111 Paul Milliman https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101848 Contested Frontiers: Mendicant Provinces Between Germany and Poland During the Late Middle Ages, p. 129 Hans-Joachim Schmidt https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101849 Skriðuklaustur Monastery in Medieval Iceland: A Colony of Religiosity and Culture, p. 149 Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101850 Religious and Society on the Borders of Christendom: The Regular Canons in Medieval Catalonia, p. 173 Karen Stöber https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101851 On the Frontier of the Orthodox and Latin World: Religious Patronage in Medieval Frankish Greece, p. 193 Nicky Tsougarakis https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101852 Angevin Religious Patronage in the County of Maine: The Assertion of Identity, Authority, and Legitimacy, 1110–51, p. 211 Kathryn Dutton https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101853 Staging the Jew: Liturgical Drama and Frontier-Building in Twelfth-Century Laon, p. 237 Kati Ihnat https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.1.101854 Back Matter ("Index", "Titles in Series"), p. 263