By force and fear : taking and breaking monastic vows in early modern Europe / Anne Jacobson Schutte.
Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican Archive, Schutte examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. She considers petitions from Roman Catho...
Saved in:
| Online Access: |
Full Text (via ProQuest) |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ithaca [N.Y.] :
Cornell University Press,
2011.
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican Archive, Schutte examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. She considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. Schutte also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, she finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into "entering religion." Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged. Schutte's innovative book will be of great interest to scholars of early modern Europe, especially those who work on religion, the Church, family, and gender.-- Book jacket |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xii, 285 p.) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780801463181 0801463181 9780801463174 0801463173 |