L’ordre de Prémontré au XVIIIesiècle Ed. by Dominique-Marie Dauzet and Martine Plouvier (review)

This volume examines the Premonstratensian Order in Europe in the eighteenth century, and the articles come out of a 2002 conference. The articles, of course, vary in quality, and the long time between the conference and the publication of the volume means that considerable new scholarship has been produced in the interim. Nevertheless, there are some important insights in this volume. The articles here show that this monastic order—the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, founded in the twelfth century and also known as the Norbertines—continued to be vibrant and active even in the century of the Enlightenment. The volume reinforces many of the points made by Derek Beales in Prosperity and Plunder. European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650–1815 (New York, 2003), from the perspective of one order. In the eighteenth century the Premonstratensians were prosperous; they built or renovated their monasteries and promoted traditional piety while also engaging the new intellectual and cultural developments of the age.

The volume presents an overview of the order across Europe, seeking common developments and reminding the reader of its institutional structure. By the 1700s the leading role of the “mother house” at Premontré in northeastern France had declined significantly. Houses outside France barely recognized its primacy within the order, and “general chapters” that drew representatives from across Europe were held only in 1717 and 1738.The order became more national in its perspectives and interests, with the German, French, and Belgian houses as particularly important; this volume focuses on those regions.

The nuanced article by Xavier Lavagne d’Ortigue on the Order in France explains much of the character of the order in this period. The Premonstratensians in France were divided into two branches: a “reformist” branch and a more traditional one. The two branches were not exactly in conflict, although there were differences in emphasis, particularly about how much (or little) a canon should move from house to house. The order was, in one sense, quite large, with eighty-four abbeys and ten urban residences. However, there were only 1200 monks of various kinds in the whole country, which meant that many houses were quite small. D’Ortigue, just like many government and church officials in the eighteenth century, considers this structure problematic, since monastic houses with few residents suffered disciplinary problems while using resources inefficiently.

Another characteristic of the order was the large number of chanoinescurés in France. These were canons who served as parish priests and did not usually live in a monastic setting. These men played an important role in local religious life and seem to have performed their duties with care and dedication, as was increasingly characteristic of parish priests in the eighteenth century. In this way, the order was constantly engaged with secular life and far from the useless, detached, and materialist monastic orders satirized by Voltaire and other Enlightenment writers.

Yet at the same time, this volume describes the great baroque complexes built by the Premonstratensians during the eighteenth century in France, south Germany, and the Habsburg lands. These building projects, which were characterized most famously by wonderful libraries in locations such as Strahov in Bohemia and Schussenried in Upper Swabia, were artistic masterpieces, complete with extensive decoration in the most elaborate style. They also were hugely expensive and reflected the great wealth accumulated by the order over the centuries. In demonstrating this wealth so openly, the Premonstratensians, like all the old orders, were vulnerable to the satires of the philosophes and to the desire of rapacious monarchs like Joseph II to take their resources for use in other, more “useful” ways. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic era then led to the almost total destruction of the order.

This useful volume, which unfortunately does not discuss houses for women, brings the often neglected history of the...