War and the Making of Medieval Monastic Culture

Studies in the History of Medieval Religion

by Katherine Allen Smith

The monastic life, traditionally considered as an area of withdrawal from the world, is here shown to be shaped by metaphors of war, and to be actively engaged with battle in the world outside.

An extremely interesting and important book... makes an important contribution to the history of medieval monastic spirituality in a formative period, whilst also fitting into wider debates on the origins, development and impactof ideas on crusading and holy war. Dr William Purkis, University of Birmingham

Monastic culture has generally been seen as set apart from the medieval battlefield, as "those who prayed" were set apart from "those whofought". However, in this first study of the place of war within medieval monastic culture, the author shows the limitations of this division. Through a wide reading of Latin sermons, letters, and hagiography, she identifies a monastic language of war that presented the monk as the archetypal "soldier of Christ" and his life of prayer as a continuous combat with the indeed, monks' claims to supremacy on the spiritual battlefield grew even louder asChurch leaders extended the title of "soldier of Christ" to lay knights and crusaders. So, while medieval monasteries have traditionally been portrayed as peaceful sanctuaries in a violent world, here the author demonstrates thatmonastic identity was negotiated through real and imaginary encounters with war, and that the concept of spiritual warfare informed virtually every aspect of life in the cloister. It thus breaks new ground in the history of European attitudes toward warfare and warriors in the age of the papal reform movement and the early crusades.

Katherine Allen Smith is Assistant Professor of History, University of Puget Sound.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Academic

250 pages, Hardcover

First published April 21, 2011

About the author

Katherine Allen Smith teaches medieval and early modern European history, as well as the first part of the Western Civilization survey, the Doing History methods course, and upper-division courses on women and gender and the Crusades. Her research interests relate to various aspects of Christian spirituality and monasticism in Western Europe during the Central Middle Ages (c.900 – c.1200), and she has published articles on these subjects in Speculum, Viator, Church History, and The Journal of Medieval History. She is the co-editor, with Scott Wells, of Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe (Brill, 2009), and the author of War and the Making of Medieval Monastic Culture (Boydell & Brewer, 2011). She is currently working on two projects: the first deals with the roles of monks and secular clerics within the early crusading movement as participants, promoters, and chroniclers; and the second is a study of the ritual aspects of life in monastic communities, with a focus on rites of entrance into religious life and the ceremonies surrounding death and burial in the monastery.