Community, society and memory in late medieval nunneries

ABSTRACT

The question of what held functionally differentiated societies together was one of the key concerns that drove the nascent social sciences in the late nineteenth century. Whereas the term society did not imply personal attachment, the idea of community, by contrast, was thought to be rooted in belonging and togetherness, and hence in emotions. In the social world of medieval monasticism community and society were interwoven in myriad ways. Over time, the lines that connected them, both discursively and praxeologically, shifted in unison with changes to their ascribed meanings. My study is divided into three parts, in each of which practices of commemorating the dead are connected to issues of gender and kinship. In the first section, I will focus on the Revelations of Gertrud the Great, in order to draw attention to the eschatological and anthropological foundations of memorial practice. The second section will focus on anniversary endowments that are documented in monastic charters and seek to establish the extent to which they offered leeway to tailor commemoration. The third section will focus on the same question, but use a single necrology as a starting point. The chronological focus will rest primarily, but not solely, on the fourteenth century, which in many respects marks a turning point in the history of the ever-changing, always gendered relationship between the individual, community and society.

KEYWORDS:

• Female monasticism
• community/togetherness
• remembrance of the dead
• refectory
• life annuity
• bequests

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Gertrude d’Helfta, Œuvres spirituelles, vol. 2: Le héraut (Livres I et II) (in the following referred to as Le héraut), 58–70; Gertrud von Helfta, Ein botte der götlichen miltekeit, 3–45.

2 Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Lichtenthal 89, 760f.; the Editio princeps, produced and commented by the Carthusians of Cologne, was printed there in 1536 by Melchior of Neuß with the title Insinuationum divinae pietatis libri quinque.

3 See also Le héraut. V, 5, 4–5, 114 and Livre V, 8, 1, 128.

4 Le héraut. V, 3, 3, 68–69. See also ibid. V, 12, 3, 154–157; V, 6, 1, 116–118.

5 Rézeau and Sonet 1986, R 182, 227: Ave Jesu Christe, splendor patris, princeps pacis, janua celi, panis vivus, virginis partus.

6 Le héraut. V, 19, 5, 186–188.

7 Urkundenbuch des Klosters Heiligkreuztal (in the following referred to as UKH), vol. 1, no. 414, 213: Ich, her Hainrich von Wuⁱlfelingen, ain ritter, genânt von Hornstein.

8 One pound = 240 Heller.

9 The lines between the office and the person are blurred in this case (Signori 2001, 245−255).

10 The Jahrzeitmeisterin, first mentioned in a charter dating to 1345 (UKH 1, no. 464, 247–248).

11 Marquard von Lindau, Das Buch der zehn Gebote (Venice 1483), 38.

12 On what follows: UKH 1, no. 427, 221.

13 UKH 2, no. 1281, 481–485.

14 Das Jahrzeitbuch des Klosters Tänikon (circa 1315 bis 1680) (in the following referred to as JKT), pp. 109−110.

15 Thurgauisches Urkundenbuch (in the following referred as TU), TU 6: 1359–1375, 593−594, no. 3116; 597−598, no. 3120.

16 TU 8: 1391–1400, no. 4326, 112−113.

17 Psalm 149, 5–7: ‘Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.’