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The Catholic Historical Review 89.1 (2003) 94-95



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Monastic Spaces and Their Meanings: Thirteenth-Century English Cistercian Monasteries. By Megan Cassidy-Welch. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers. 2001. Pp. xv, 293. £50.00.)

This provocative book explores the monastic culture of seven thirteenth-century Yorkshire Cistercian abbeys—Fountains, Rievaulx, Sawley, Kirkstall, Jervaulx, Roche, and Byland through the concept of space, with space understood in two senses; on the one hand, the visible, physical space, and, on the other hand, abstract or imagined space, such as heaven, purgatory, and hell. The work rests on careful study of the archaeological remains of these abbeys, on an analysis of relevant contemporary monastic texts, on an exceptional control of the vast secondary literature, and on the application of the ideas of theorists, such as Michel Foucault.

Dr. Cassidy-Welch focuses on the abbey church as the center of monastic psalmody and devotion; the cloister (usually) on the south side of the church as both the scene of communal rites, such as shaving, and rituals such as processions, and as the vision of paradise; the infirmary, as the place for bloodletting and of rest for the sick; and on the cemetery and all that relates to rituals surrounding death and burial. The conversi or lay brothers receive some consideration, though the reasons for their dissatisfaction, revolts, and violence do not get the attention that they deserve, given the brothers' importance for Cistercian economic culture. There is no mention of the monastic refectory, dormitory, or bathing places, though those parts of the compound obviously held significance for the physical, spiritual, and psychological health of the brethren. [End Page 94]

The Chapter House has traditionally been understood as the place for the daily community meeting, or chapter, the place for the conduct of negotia, the business of the house, such as the lease, purchase, or sale of property; discussions about renovations or expansion of buildings; about the admission of novices to profession; the election of officials; about preparations for abbatial visitations and the implementation of visitorial recommendations. The negotia rests on St. Benedict's advice that "when anything important is to be done in the monastery, the abbot shall call the whole community together, explain what the business is, and after hearing the advice of the brethren, let him ponder it . . ." (Rule, chapter 3). Cassidy-Welch, however, sees the chapter house as the place for confession and correction, the scene of the disciplining of the monks, the space where "institutional solidarity," to use anachronistically Foucault's phrase, was enforced. She draws no distinction between infractions of the Rule, the customs of the Order, and practices of the house on the one hand, and, on the other hand, sins against God which are properly between the monk and his abbot or confessor, not the concern of the Chapter of Faults. She portrays a routine atmosphere of public accusations, confessions, and harsh physical floggings. While the Rule of Benedict allows corporal punishment (chapters 23 and 28), it repeatedly stresses kindness in correction, urging the abbot to "use argument, appeal, reproof," "to vary (correction) with circumstance and the individual," to remember "to adapt himself to each one's character and intelligence" (Chapter 2). Monks in no age can be forced into a rigid mold, certainly not by beatings; nor is an atmosphere of accusations and whippings conducive to the charity and spiritual freedom that the monastic life seeks to promote. Much of the material on the Chapter House rests on the Ecclesiastica Officia, a Cistercian legislative book of usages. Tryng to reconstruct social practice from a book of laws is like describing twenty-first-century American political culture on the basis of the Constitution of 1787.

The prose is lucid, generally free of jargon. The utility of the many illustrations would have been enhanced by explanatory captions.

 



Bennett Hill, O.S.B.
Georgetown University

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