Colette of Corbie: Learning and Holiness

Chapter 2: The Themes of the Letters

CHapter 2 tHe tHeMes of tHe letters The themes of the letters fall under two headings: the reformer’s relationships with people in the world (or outside her order) and her relationships with the religious sisters and brothers within the reform. relationsHips WitH people outside tHe order Colette’s relationships with those outside the order are, nonetheless, entwined with the life of the reform. One letter discusses the founding of a monastery, another acknowledges services rendered to a convent, and the third examines the possible entry of a pious laywoman into a community. Opponents to the Foundations There was opposition to founding a house in Corbie. After her return from Nice in 1406, Colette wished to establish a foundation in her native town. Nearing the end of her life, acknowledged as a reformer by the Franciscan order and by her noble protectors, and with the theoretical agreement of the parish priest of Corbie, Colette tried once more to establish a reformed monastery there. Much has already been said about the rejection by Corbie Abbey. The letter to the king and the two missives to the monks highlight the essential issues, which were economic in nature. Colette asked the king “to write off the cost of the place where the said convent CHAPTER 2 THE THEMES OF THE LETTERS The themes of the letters fall under two headings: the reformer’s relationships with people in the world (or outside her order) and her relationships with the religious sisters and brothers within the reform. RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE ORDER Colette’s relationships with those outside the order are, nonetheless, entwined with the life of the reform. One letter discusses the founding of a monastery, another acknowledges services rendered to a convent, and the third examines the possible entry of a pious laywoman into a community. Opponents to the Foundations There was opposition to founding a house in Corbie. After her return from Nice in 1406, Colette wished to establish a foundation in her native town. Nearing the end of her life, acknowledged as a reformer by the Franciscan order and by her noble protectors, and with the theoretical agreement of the parish priest of Corbie, Colette tried once more to establish a reformed monastery there. Much has already been said about the rejection by Corbie Abbey. The letter to the king and the two missives to the monks highlight the essential issues, which were economic in nature. Colette asked the king “to write off the cost of the place where the said convent LEARNING AND HOLINESS 176 must be built,” the building of which had already begun with authorization from the pope. Through her benefactors, she undertook to “make restitution [to the monks] for everything that will be said and found, and more besides.” She also recalled the particular characteristic of her order : “to have, at any time, neither lordship or jurisdiction nor rent nor charge nor revenue, but to live only on alms according to the counsel of the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The monks feared the loss of property as a result of construction taking place on land that undoubtedly belonged to the abbey. They also envisioned the loss of rents and jurisdictions if, in future, the new convent attracted donations from benefactors or itself acquired new property. Not without a frisson of pride, Colette recalled that the “poor religious sisters” lived according to different principles, those based on the Gospel,1 stating clearly the difference in economic structure between the Benedictine order and that of the Clarisses – individual but not collective poverty on the one hand, individual and collective poverty on the other. The archives of the Clarisses in Amiens or in other monasteries demonstrate that the monks had reason to feel uneasy. Although, generally speaking, the Colettine convents were careful not to acquire property, they did, on the other hand, drain significant donations from both the upper and the middle classes. Colette was fully aware of the risk: her “legislative ” Writings warn her daughters against accepting sizeable donations that would alter the character of their vowed poverty . In this regard, we note one of the features of the quarrels between the mendicant religious and the monastic orders (such as the Benedictines) and secular clergy. Established in towns of medium importance, monasteries of mendicants or Clarisses diverted some of the income of the clergy and 1 Note the accumulation of economic terms, preceded...