Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organization in Medieval Religious Communities (review)

Reviews 233 developments in technology have m a d e possible. Altogether, the collection is a useful tool for the working editor and has, furthermore, considerable interest for those readers w h o are interested in h o w books make their way onto modern library shelves, what texts appear in that format, and what n e w textual models will become possible and even commonplace in the future. Helen Vella Bonavita John Curtin International Institute Curtin University of Technology Kaelber, Lutz, Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organization in Me Religious Communities, University Park, Pennsylvania, Penn State Press, 1998, paper; pp. viii, 278; R.R.P. US$19.95. This interesting volume extends Max Weber's analysis of religious asceticism which resulted in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-5) back in time to the European Middle Ages, as Weber himself had intended but never realised. Weber interpreted ascetic rationalism as a religious position which combined a mental attitude and a programme of social action, which resulted in empowerment for the individual ascetic and for his/her religious community. Kaelber is concerned to demonstrate that asceticism in high medieval religion resulted in rationalised action. H e employs four case studies: monastic and lay asceticism in orthodox Catholicism; and the Waldensians and the Cathars as examples of heretical asceticism. Part One, 'A Sociology of Medieval Religion', explores the sociological methodology of M a x Weber and Ernst Troeltsch. Both scholars felt that medieval Catholicism was not the precursor of Calvinist inner-worldly asceticism, and that the likely antecedents of this phenomenon were puritanical heretical sects. This leads to an analysis of the classical and revisionist sociological accounts of medieval monasticism: Weber and Troeltsch had characterised monastic asceticism as 'other-worldly' (as opposed to the 'inner-worldliness' of Calvinism); the revisionist position was that monastic asceticism did qualify as 'inner-worldly' because of the relations the monasteries maintained with the secular world through their mastery of technology 234 Reviews and economics. Kaelber's o w n position is that the evidence supports neither account: the classic account underestimates monasticism's involvement with the world; and the revisionist account 'misconstrues monasticism's rationalizing impact on the social spheres. Both accounts overestimate its asceticism' (p. 62). H e concludes that the main carriers of religious discipline and asceticism were lay religious movements, often on the fringes of orthodoxy; he adventurously argues that the mendicant orders were imitating lay asceticism, not the inspirers of such piety. This part concludes with a consideration of the role of magic in lay piety, and the way in which magic inhibited the development of 'the methodical rationalization of conduct' (p. 101). Magic includes astrology, love spells, medical spells, and the drawing of lots. Kaelber notes that lay devotional practices such as the veneration of relics, the baptism of church bells (as their sound banished demons which caused storms), seasonal festivals and pilgrimages often had a magical component. Part Two, 'Asceticism in Lay Religious Movements in the Middle Ages', considers Waldensianism first. Kaelber regards this group as eminently worthy of sociological analysis. Three types of documents are examined: the first is Waldensian writings, such as Durand of Huesca's Liber antiheresis (which focuses on the lives and thoughts of the leadership, rather than the m o v e m e n t itself); the second is ecclesiastical observations; the third inquisitorial records which exist from about 1240. Waldes of Lyons, a prosperous merchant, began to preach around 1173, against a background of sweeping social change. Early Waldensianism challenged contemporary religious notions with an insistence on the close correspondence between faith and behaviour, and the rejection of ecclesiastical rituals (such as confession and absolution of sins) as a substitute for righteous conduct. Kaelber stresses the importance of the Waldensian appropriation of the 'ethic of the heroes' (usually reserved for the monastic clergy) despite their lay status, and the formation of textual communities. Waldes had the Gospels translated and early Waldensians learned them by heart: writers such as Durand of Huesca could read the scriptures and the church fathers in Latin and preach in the vernacular. Literacy facilitated communicative rationality in the community. Reviews 235 After Waldes' death the...