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  • The Privilege of Poverty: Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, and the Struggle for a Franciscan Rule for Women
  • Elizabeth Freeman
Mueller, Joan , The Privilege of Poverty: Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, and the Struggle for a Franciscan Rule for Women, University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006; cloth; pp. x, 182; 16 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$40.00; ISBN 0271028939.

This short book provides a narrative account of the struggles undertaken by Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) and Agnes of Prague (1211-82) to keep strict and unadulterated poverty at the heart of their communities of religious women. Located in Italy and Prague, these communities existed in various degrees of relationship with the Franciscan brethren. The legal and pastoral relationships between the male and female followers of Francis of Assisi may have ebbed and flowed (in the 1240s Pope Innocent IV wrote to the Friars Minor and encouraged them to preach to Franciscan sisters, while at the same time the Franciscan author Thomas of Celano would claim that Francis had exhibited very little pastoral care over Franciscan sisters), but one thing that did not change was the deep commitment of Clare and Agnes towards poverty. Connected to each other by letter-writing and utter dedication to 'the one thing that is necessary [poverty]', if not by geography, Clare and Agnes ultimately succeeded in gaining, and maintaining, the so-called privilege of poverty.

As far as the surviving evidence is concerned, the privilege in question was first granted in 1228 by Pope Gregory IX to Clare and her monastery of S. Damiano at Assisi. Reflecting a difference in opinion between the church hierarchy (especially the papacy) and female religious communities that would never go away, the 1228 papal letter was a compromise. Clare had asked that her monastery should have no possessions whatsoever, while Gregory wanted to prevent a situation whereby impoverished female communities caused a financial drain on society and so modified Clare's request and granted simply that S. Damiano could not be forced to accept any possessions. This was the privilege of poverty that meant so much to Clare and, later, to Agnes.

Popes, bishops, kings, emperors, Francis of Assisi – many people apart from the women themselves played a role in how women should live together in communities under the inspiration of Francis and, especially, the extent to which these women would be able to preserve their strict desire for corporate poverty. While Francis was (eventually) convinced that his female followers had the commitment to pursue poverty without being a drain on others, soon the increasing bureaucratisation of the Franciscan friars meant that religious women were 'squeezed out'. The Fourth Lateran Council is also relevant – its decree that people joining religious life needed to accept a pre-existing rule was [End Page 242] the background to the actions of Cardinal Ugolino Conti di Segni in writing a form of life, based on the Benedictine rule, for Italian nuns. Clare's community of S. Damiano would not adopt the Ugolinian constitutions, hence giving a clear indication of the single-minded principles of Clare that would later be evident in her refusal to accept anything contrary to the principles of poverty.

Agnes was similarly determined. Daughter of the king of Bohemia and queen of Hungary, Agnes built a hospital in Prague which she dedicated to Francis of Assisi and also used her dowry money to build a Franciscan convent for women. Correspondence between Agnes and Clare served to bolster Agnes's contempt for earthly riches. Agnes gained the privilege of poverty for her own monastery in 1238. Agnes pushed Gregory IX to grant her a Franciscan rule for women, but he refused. Later Agnes made the same request of Pope Innocent IV. Politically astute, she used her influence in Bohemian politics to assist Innocent IV in his conflict with Emperor Frederick II; a quid pro quo resulted, and in return the pope granted Agnes's community further privileges and independence although, as yet, no specific rule for them. Finally, in the 1250s Clare and her sisters composed a rule and, for unclear reasons, Innocent IV suddenly changed his mind and approved this...

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