A social history of the cloister : daily life in the teaching monasteries of the Old Regime /
Elizabeth Rapley.
- Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, (c)2001.
- 1 online resource (viii, 379 pages) : illustrations.
- McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion .
Includes bibliographies and index.
part 1. Two hundred years. The nuns and their world -- For richer, for poorer: the monastic system and the economy -- The dilemmas of obedience -- "Personae non gratae": Jansenist nuns in the wake of Unigenitus -- The decline of the monasteries -- Aftermath -- pt. 2. The anatomy of the cloister. Clausura and community -- The three pillars of monasticism: poverty, chastity, obedience -- Prehistories -- Novices -- "The servants of the brides of Christ" -- Of death and dying -- The Institut -- The Pensionnat -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Demographics of the cloister.
In this book the author goes beyond the monastic rulebooks, legal and notarial records, and memoirs of famous women who passed through monastery doors to the chronicles, letters, and other little-known writings produced by nuns for and about themselves. Working from these accounts, she is able to provide a picture of women who, as a whole, were much less otherworldly than the older convent literature would have us believe, much less thwarted and unhappy than their detractors have long maintained, and much less irrelevant than some historians have assumed.
9780773569416
Monasticism and religious orders for women--History.--France