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  • Religieux et religieuses en Empire du Xeau XIIesiècle by Michel Parisse
  • Mathew Kuefler
Religieux et religieuses en Empire du Xeau XIIesiècle. By Michel Parisse. [Les Médiévistes français, 11.] (Paris: Éditions A. et J. Picard, 2011. Pp. 253. €34,00 paperback. ISBN 978-2-70844-0908-8.)

This book brings together fifteen of the author’s articles, published between 1982 and 2004. They describe the varied forms that monasticism took between the tenth and twelfth centuries, mostly in those parts of the Empire that would become France—that is, Alsace and Lorraine—although two of the chapters describe female monasticism in Saxony. The abbey of Gorze near Metz is mentioned often, and Michel Parisse notes his debt to Kassius Hallinger’s previous study of that monastery and its reforms. Parisse makes the argument in his preface that monasticism in the region that was medieval Lotharingia represents a middle-ground or axis (“un espace moyen,” p. 11; “l’axe lotharingien,” p. 96) between French and German models, and there is frequent comparison of the subjects of his study to neighboring regions, especially to Burgundy and Flanders. The book suffers from the inevitable consequences of its origins—there is some overlap in the analysis from one chapter to another, although the author has added comments throughout that send the reader to other chapters for more background or other details. Still, Parisse describes as his goal to make more evident the diversity within the consecrated religious life in the region in this era (p. 13), and he accomplishes this amply. Some monasteries existed independently under the Rule of Saint Benedict, interpreted more or less strictly; others joined the growing monastic networks. In addition to regular communities (that is, under a rule), there were also secular ones, especially for women and especially in Saxony, that permitted their members greater freedoms to move [End Page 117] about or even leave permanently as well as to enjoy greater creature comforts such as servants and private apartments. Parisse also reflects deeply on the nature and meaning of monastic reform. Early Cluniacs and others emphasized the necessity of their reorganization of so-called corrupted monasteries, but all monasteries interpreted their rules in different ways, and all engaged in complex relationships with the lay nobility who had founded them, donated lands to them, provided their personnel, and served as political and ecclesiastical leaders alongside them. Parisse is to be commended for his skillful use of obscure and fragmentary sources. The regions he describes often do not have the abundance of records that exists, for example, for Cluny in the same period. Yet he even tries in places to track changes over time. Parisse also defends his decision to separate out his analysis of male from female communities into the two main parts of his book (seven chapters about men followed by eight about women) as necessary so as to recognize the substantial gendered differences taken by monasticism. For example, in chapter 11 he points out the presence of widows as informal members of many religious communities that has no real male equivalent. He also tries his best to sort out the sketchy evidence for female houses linked to the reforming movements that were dominated by men, Cluniac, Cistercian, and Premonstratensian. There is thus much of real value that results from the bringing together of these related essays into one book.

Mathew Kuefler
San Diego State University
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