Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages

Steven Vanderputten

Steven Vanderputten

Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages

Richard of Saint-Vanne and the Politics of Reform

Cornell University Press | 2015

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801456305

Overview
Contents

About this book

Around the turn of the first millennium AD, there emerged in the former Carolingian Empire a generation of abbots that came to be remembered as one of the most influential in the history of Western monasticism. In this book Steven Vanderputten reevaluates the historical significance of this generation of monastic leaders through an in-depth study of one of its most prominent figures, Richard of Saint-Vanne. During his lifetime, Richard (d. 1046) served as abbot of numerous monasteries, which gained him a reputation as a highly successful administrator and reformer of monastic discipline. As Vanderputten shows, however, a more complex view of Richard's career, spirituality, and motivations enables us to better evaluate his achievements as church leader and reformer.Vanderputten analyzes various accounts of Richard’s life, contemporary sources that are revealing of his worldview and self-conception, and the evidence relating to his actions as a monastic reformer and as a promoter of conversion. Richard himself conceived of his life as an evolving commentary on a wide range of issues relating to individual spirituality, monastic discipline, and religious leadership. This commentary, which combined highly conservative and revolutionary elements, reached far beyond the walls of the monastery and concerned many of the issues that would divide the church and its subjects in the later eleventh century.

Author information

VanderputtenSteven:

Steven Vanderputten is Professor in the History of the Early and Central Middle Ages at Ghent University. He is the author of Monastic Reform as Process: Realities and Representations in Medieval Flanders, 900–1100 and Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages: Richard of Saint-Vanne and the Politics of Reform.

Reviews

Greg Peters:

"Steven Vanderputten is a productive scholar, publishing a spate of books and articles over the past decade, most of which deal with questions of monastic history in medieval Flanders and the surrounding areas in the tenth and eleventh centuries. With Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages Vanderputten turns his attention to a monastic figure, who he argues has been oft misinterpreted: Richard of Saint-Vanne. Vanderputten gives us the most thorough investigation of the life and actions of Richard to date, and does so in an impressive manner."

Marc Saurette, Carleton University:

"Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages is a fresh and necessary reexamination of Richard of Saint-Vanne. Steven Vanderputten's portrait of Richard unfolds in an analytical, narrative, and most entertaining fashion. Each chapter reveals further insights about Richard from different sources and keeps the reader anticipating what will come next. Vanderputten argues in clear, straightforward prose that seems to arrive effortlessly at answers that in fact draw on his wide range of knowledge."

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
List of Illustrations Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	vii
Preface Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	ix
List of Abbreviations Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	xiii
Introduction Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
1. Imagining Richard in Medieval and Modern Historiography Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	14
2. Ecclesiastical Office, Religious Virtuosity, and the Apostolic Imperative Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	42
3. Imagining Saint-Vanne Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	73
4. “Founder and Head of Many Monasteries” Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	104
5. Converting the World Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	139
Conclusion Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	160
Appendix A: Chronology of Major Events in Richard’s Life Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	165
Appendix B: The Life of Roding Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	169
Appendix C: Monastic Reading at Saint-Vanne Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	187
Appendix D: Overview of Richard’s Abbacies Outside of Saint-Vanne Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	197
Appendix E: Overview of Richard’s “Priors” Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	201
Appendix F: Overview of Richard’s Successors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	203
Bibliography Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	205
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	231

(Deutsch)

Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages

Richard of Saint-Vanne and the Politics of Reform

Details

Formats