259:, attributed to Waldebert, established the mother role of the abbess on terms very similar to those of an abbot. In this Rule, Walbert asserts that abbesses share many of the powers of an abbot, including the ability to hear confessions from their nuns and absolve them of their sins. These abbesses were often of noble birth, either direct or distant descendants of the family that founded the monastery. Between the start of the 6th century and the mid-8th century, when double monasteries went into decline, over one hundred double monasteries or convents had been founded in Gaul.
31:
419:“Double monasteries are henceforth forbidden. If a whole family wishes to renounce the world together, the men must go into convents for men, the female members of the family in convents for women. The double monasteries already existing may continue … but must observe the following ordinance: Monks and nuns may not reside in one building, for living together gives occasion for incontinence. No monk may enter the nun’s quarter, and no nun converse apart with a monk."
224:, also in Gaul. These two monasteries shared many of the same features: they both housed male and female religious communities within the same enclosure, though these groups lived apart, and they shared a common church for liturgical offices. Both monasteries were administered by a single head, typically an abbess, a reflection of Caesarius of Arles’ view about the management of female houses. While these religious houses were influenced by Columbanus’ missions in
452:’s rule. He established a total of thirteenth mixed houses by the end of that century. These new monasteries were not without controversy, however. On canonical grounds, Pope Alexander threatened Gilbert with excommunication for promoting a banned form of religious community, and only the intervention of King
447:
was compiled, which was a form of standardized monastic rule. This rule contained explicit instructions regarding the separation of the sexes, forbidding men to enter convents or disturb a nun at prayer. By the twelfth century, double monasteries experienced a faint resurgence, especially in
England
431:
raids combined with the general decline of a cloistered life during the early 9th century all led to a sharp decrease in the populations and activities of these double houses. The Danish invasions of the 9th century led to the destruction of the double monasteries of Whitby, Barking, and Ely by 870.
215:
became patron of the community, thereby promoting the example of
Luxeuil's mixed rule — a combination of Benedictine and Columbanian monasticism — throughout medieval Europe. Balthild was responsible for the foundation of an abbey of nuns at Chelles around 659, a double monastery, where she retired
399:
counterparts, the male and female sections of the monastery featured very different lifestyles. They did, however, rely upon each other, and established a centre of activity between the two churches that allowed both monks and nuns to exchange skills and goods. Like
Western double monasteries, the
415:
By the end of the 8th century, the double monastery as an institution entered a steep decline. The most obvious doctrinal explanation for this shift lies in the twentieth canon of the seventh ecumenical synod declared at the Second
Council of Nicaea in 787. This canon reads, in part:
314:. The prominent position occupied in England by double monasteries emerges further from the fact that Whitby served in the seventh century as a place of retirement and burial for several Anglo-Saxon kings. It also fostered significant cultural achievements, such as the poems of
368:
served as a church, often founded by a royal or a magnate, with an attached community of priests, nuns, and monks, rather than an enclosed religious community, to carry out welfare and pastoral work in the local area. This distinction was exemplified in the dichotomy between
170:
was to be "superior in rank" and "obeyed without murmuring". Caesarius ensured that the abbesses of the convents would be free of forced obedience to the local diocesan bishop by obtaining a Papal letter exempting the convent from episcopal authority. He also wrote the
142:
The double monasteries of the 7th and 8th centuries had their roots in early
Christian religious communities. Early female monasticism, while not as well-documented as that of its male counterpart, is known by the fifth century in the case of a convent founded in
133:
of
Einsiedeln without a converse arrangement for the prioress of Fahr. More commonly, however, a woman, termed an abbess, ruled over the two communities. In most English and many Continental instances the abbess not rarely was a princess or widowed queen.
426:
effectively ensured that double monasteries throughout both
England and Gaul would not exist within a century. This ecclesiastical ordinance was not the only limit on the expansion of the double house system. In England, the effects of constant
175:, the first known rule specifically created for a convent. This rule featured a combination of old and new restrictions on monastic life, including the individual renunciation of private property, obedience to God through the abbess, and
475:. While double monasteries never again reached the heights of influence and ubiquity they had achieved during the mid-seventh century, the later Middle Ages saw a re-emergence and evolution of double houses and a spread across Europe.
89:
in 787, though it took many years for the decree to be enforced. Double monasteries were revived again after the 12th century in a significantly different way when a number of religious houses were established on this pattern among
345:, abbess of Barking, both male and female burials were combined into a single mass grave. Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the Continent founded double houses there, one example is the double monastery of
159:
for his sister and her religious community of women. It is this latter convent, and the Rule with which
Caesarius endowed it, that served as the framework for the evolution of the double monastery.
151:. This preceded several convents in Rome. St. Basil and Pachomius both established female religious communities in close proximity to those of men in the East. In 512, Bishop St
383:. These monasteries were not physically enclosed communities, and featured separate churches for nuns and monks. The most notable of these establishments is the monastery of
863:
Dierkens, Alain (1989). "Prolégomènes à une historie des relationes culturelles entre les Îles
Britanniques et le continent pendant le haut moyen âge". In Atsma, H. (ed.).
467:, on the other hand, double monasteries experienced a great revival during the late fourteenth century with the spread of the Order of the Holy Saviour, also known as the
487:
915:
A History of the
Christian Councils, from the Original Documents to the Close of the Council of Nicæa. Translated from the German and Edited by William R. Clark
109:
Church, monks and nuns would live in separate buildings but were usually united under an Abbess as head of the entire household. Examples include the original
456:
and prominent English bishops allowed Gilbert to continue his double monasteries. There were also allegedly more mundane causes of scandal, pregnant nuns.
373:, a professed nun, and a canonica- a woman living under a religious rule, but without necessarily having taken personal religious vows, as in the case of
236:
was a community of men and women living together without strict separation, but there is little evidence as to whether it was traditional or an anomaly.
290:, which she directly modelled drawing both upon Aidan’s teaching and the Rule followed by her contemporaries at Chelles and Jouarre. By order of King
379:
Double monasteries were not exclusively found in the West, however. During the 8th century, some cases of double monasteries were documented in the
252:
878:
179:
for life, which served the dual purpose of protecting the enclosure of the convent's members and limiting intrusion by the secular world.
65:, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East at the dawn of
360:
A characteristic unique to Anglo-Saxon religious establishments was the simultaneous institution of double monasteries along with double
940:
333:. After spending twelve years refusing to consummate her marriage, Etheldreda was granted the land for Ely by her husband, King
232:
monasticism might have had in the foundation of these Frankish double houses is unclear. In the 5th century, the monastery of
1001:
897:
515:
463:
society, but both sections, male and female, eventually shifted into more separate communities of canons and canonesses. In
278:
in 647, where many other daughters of the English nobility were educated. Instead, she remained in England, where Bishop
973:
73:, where it is traceable to the 4th century. In the West the establishment of double monasteries became popular after
990:
Röckelein, Hedwig (2008). "Founders, Donors, and Saints: Patrons of Nuns' Convents". In Jeffrey F. Hamburger (ed.).
17:
286:, trained her in monasticism. She continued the Gaulish tradition of noble female heads of double monasteries at
392:
306:. Whitby became known as a school for bishops, and produced five during Hilda’s time as abbess, according to
220:
throne. Around this same time, the brother of the bishop Audoens, Ado, formed the famous double monastery of
66:
1020:
846:
388:
886:
Gerchow, Jan (2008). "Early Monasteries and Foundations (500-1200)". In Jeffrey F. Hamburger (ed.).
964:
423:
86:
341:, followed the Gallic tradition of separation of the sexes with one exception: after death, under
334:
449:
443:
there remained only a few convents and no double monasteries in England. In this new wave, the
435:
Beginning in the late 10th century, Anglo-Saxon England experienced a revival of monasticism.
422:
By banning further establishment of double monasteries and limiting their applicant pool, the
460:
374:
299:
233:
228:, he himself never established female religious institutions. The degree of influence which
279:
156:
70:
30:
8:
453:
346:
322:
263:
217:
82:
845:
Less frequently, the term is used to describe one monastery based on two sites like the
395:. Mantineon featured a school for boys in the male monastery, and unlike its Gallic and
872:
479:
472:
303:
248:
152:
997:
969:
893:
511:
432:
Often, former double monasteries were eventually converted into all-female convents.
110:
436:
380:
118:
38:
991:
984:
Byzantine Religious Architecture (582-867): Its History and Structural Elements.
887:
440:
350:
295:
267:
95:
937:
Monks of England: The Benedictines in England from Augustine to the Present Day
354:
188:
162:
Caesarius laid down that individual convents were to be governed by women. The
439:
and his queen, Elswitha, both established convents, though by the time of the
1014:
338:
275:
244:
192:
114:
993:
Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries
889:
Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries
468:
321:
Beyond Whitby, Anglo-Saxon England cultivated double monasteries including
287:
204:
148:
122:
99:
34:
935:
Proksch, Nikola (1997). "The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries on the Continent".
396:
330:
126:
91:
824:
384:
326:
74:
404:
342:
196:
144:
315:
401:
361:
212:
208:
200:
176:
167:
106:
302:
to resolve ecclesiastical differences between them, including the
271:
229:
221:
908:
Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women
464:
428:
163:
508:
Pure Resistance: Queer Virginity in Early Modern English Drama
483:
478:
A more recent Eastern Orthodox example emerged in England at
298:, which brought together representatives from the Celtic and
291:
283:
240:
130:
307:
225:
78:
58:
27:
Monastery combining separate communities of monks and nuns
488:
Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist
62:
266:
were heavily influenced by the monastic system of Gaul.
996:. Susan Marti. New York: Columbia UP. pp. 207–24.
929:
Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing A Common Fate
892:. Susan Marti. New York: Columbia UP. pp. 13–40.
865:
La Neustrie. Les Pays au Nord de la Loire de 650 Ă 850
505:
37:
in Switzerland, still part of a double monastery with
102:
were purposely founded using this form of community.
69:. It is considered more common in the monasticism of
825:
About the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex
57:) is a monastery combining separate communities of
986:
Rome: Pont. Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1991.
949:
Women and Spiritual Equality in Christian Tradition
364:. Although both institutions housed both sexes, a
191:had established the most famous convent in Gaul,
1012:
510:. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 65.
407:double houses peaked by the mid-eighth century.
274:, had originally intended to join her sister at
776:
774:
746:
744:
734:
732:
325:, which was founded by Queen (and later Saint)
802:
800:
686:
684:
867:. Vol. II. Sigmaringen. pp. 371–94.
578:
576:
574:
572:
550:
548:
239:The involvement of Columbanus’ successors as
216:following her vacating of the regency of the
968:. Vol. III. Metzler. pp. 1258–59.
790:
788:
786:
771:
741:
729:
647:
645:
608:
606:
562:
560:
270:, abbess of the most famous double house in
797:
762:
681:
85:. Double monasteries were forbidden by the
877:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
569:
545:
989:
941:Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
783:
642:
603:
557:
536:
529:
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353:around 742, and later led by his sister,
187:By the 7th century, the Irish missionary
862:
29:
934:
922:A History of the Councils of the Church
885:
14:
1013:
524:
410:
917:. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1894.
195:. Following the death of her husband
961:
24:
391:during the reign of the patriarch
25:
1032:
337:. Another renowned double house,
924:. London: T & T Clark, 1896.
459:Double monasteries continued in
951:. New York: St. Martin's, 1998.
856:
818:
809:
753:
720:
711:
702:
693:
672:
663:
654:
633:
624:
615:
506:Jankowski, Theodora A. (2000).
839:
594:
585:
499:
13:
1:
962:Parisse, M. "Doppelkloster".
493:
257:Rule of a Father for Virgins
7:
931:. Rochester: Boydell, 1992.
847:Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory
255:, is well-documented. The
41:, though not sharing a site
10:
1037:
910:. London: Routledge, 1994.
294:, in 664 Hilda hosted the
262:The double monasteries of
137:
490:was established in 1959.
389:Anthusa of Constantinople
173:Regula sanctarum virginum
129:, controlled by the male
965:Lexikon des Mittelalters
958:. London: Longman, 1984.
920:Hefele, Charles Joseph.
913:Hefele, Charles Joseph.
424:Second Council of Nicaea
87:Second Council of Nicaea
832:
335:Ecgfrith of Northumbria
182:
155:founded the convent of
125:in separate cantons of
450:Gilbert of Sempringham
42:
471:after their founder,
375:Beguines and Beghards
234:St. Brigit of Kildare
33:
956:Medieval Monasticism
906:Gilchrist, Roberta.
280:Aidan of Lindisfarne
157:St. John the Baptist
117:in London, and also
71:Eastern Christianity
445:Regularis Concordia
411:Decline and revival
347:Heidenheim, Bavaria
264:Anglo-Saxon England
98:. The 14th-century
83:Anglo-Saxon England
1021:Double monasteries
927:Hollis, Stephanie.
480:Tolleshunt Knights
473:Birgitta of Sweden
304:Easter Controversy
153:Caesarius of Arles
43:
1003:978-0-231-13980-9
947:Ranft, Patricia.
943:. pp. 37–54.
899:978-0-231-13980-9
768:Hefele 1894: 385.
517:978-0-8122-3552-4
400:establishment of
111:Coldingham Priory
94:and possibly the
77:and sprang up in
16:(Redirected from
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437:Alfred the Great
381:Byzantine Empire
119:Einsiedeln Abbey
47:double monastery
39:Einsiedeln Abbey
21:
18:Double-monastery
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982:Ruggieri, S.J.
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441:Norman Conquest
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351:Saint Willibald
296:Synod of Whitby
268:Hilda of Whitby
185:
140:
28:
23:
22:
15:
12:
11:
5:
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728:
726:Proksch 45-46.
719:
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692:
680:
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632:
630:Röckelein 207.
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523:
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495:
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412:
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366:double minster
355:Saint Walpurga
300:Roman churches
189:St. Columbanus
184:
181:
139:
136:
51:dual monastery
26:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
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848:
842:
838:
826:
821:
812:
806:Lawrence 183.
803:
801:
791:
789:
787:
780:Gilchrist 32.
777:
775:
765:
759:Ruggieri 175.
756:
750:Ruggieri 173.
747:
745:
738:Gilchrist 24.
735:
733:
723:
714:
705:
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687:
685:
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666:
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618:
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533:Parisse 1258.
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491:
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485:
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387:, founded by
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377:
376:
372:
371:sanctimoniala
367:
363:
358:
356:
352:
349:, founded by
348:
344:
340:
339:Barking Abbey
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115:Barking Abbey
113:in Scotland,
112:
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68:
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60:
56:
52:
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40:
36:
32:
19:
992:
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907:
888:
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857:Bibliography
841:
820:
811:
764:
755:
722:
713:
704:
695:
690:Lawrence 53.
674:
669:Lawrence 50.
665:
656:
639:Lawrence 44.
635:
626:
621:Lawrence 45.
617:
596:
587:
582:Lawrence 46.
554:Lawrence 52.
538:
507:
501:
477:
469:Bridgettines
458:
444:
434:
421:
418:
414:
378:
370:
365:
359:
320:
311:
288:Whitby Abbey
261:
256:
238:
205:Queen Regent
199:in 657, St.
186:
172:
161:
149:John Cassian
141:
123:Fahr Convent
104:
100:Bridgittines
92:Benedictines
55:double house
54:
50:
46:
44:
35:Fahr Convent
717:Hollis 259.
699:Hollis 125.
651:Gerchow 16.
566:Gerchow 15.
542:Hefele 385.
397:Anglo-Saxon
331:Northumbria
218:Merovingian
127:Switzerland
67:monasticism
794:Ranft 121.
708:Gerchow 17
612:Ranft 117.
600:Ranft 116.
591:Ranft 114.
494:References
486:where the
393:Nicephorus
385:Mantineion
327:Etheldreda
147:in 410 by
96:Dominicans
75:Columbanus
873:cite book
815:Ranft 120
678:Ranft 118
660:Dierkens.
405:Byzantine
343:Hildelith
253:Waldebert
197:Clovis II
145:Marseille
1015:Category
461:Frankish
402:medieval
362:minsters
312:Historia
282:, later
213:Burgundy
209:Neustria
201:Balthild
177:chastity
168:prioress
107:Catholic
276:Chelles
272:England
249:Eustace
245:Luxeuil
222:Jouarre
138:Origins
105:In the
81:and in
61:and of
1000:
972:
896:
514:
465:Sweden
448:under
429:Viking
316:Cædmon
241:abbots
203:, the
164:abbess
49:(also
484:Essex
454:Henry
292:Oswiu
284:Saint
230:Irish
131:abbot
59:monks
998:ISBN
970:ISBN
894:ISBN
879:link
833:Note
512:ISBN
308:Bede
251:and
226:Gaul
211:and
183:Rise
121:and
79:Gaul
63:nuns
482:in
329:of
323:Ely
310:'s
243:of
207:of
166:or
53:or
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