The
research project �Institutional Structures of Medieval Religious Orders � in the
Dresden
Adresse:
Prof.
Dr. Gert Melville
Sonderforschungsbereich
537 / Teilprojekt C
Technische
Universit�t Dresden
Mommsenstr.
13
D �
01069 Dresden
Tel.: (0049) [0]351 463 36346
Fax: (0049) [0]351 463 37774
Email: �gert.melville[at]t-online.de
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Our research project was established
in 1997 (following up an earlier project at the University of M�nster/Westfalen
which has been running since 1992) and deals with the "Institutional
Structures of Medieval Religious Orders". We aim for a strictly comparative
approach towards the history of the Religious Orders. The project works
under the direction of Prof. Dr. Gert Melville with the following
research fellows:
-
Dr. S�bastien Barret, (email:
Sebastien.Barret[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de) ,
- Mirko Breitenstein M.A., (email: mb763738[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de)
- Dr. Reinhardt Butz, (email: reinhardt.butz[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de)
-
Lars-Arne Dannenberg M.A., (email:
lars-arne.dannenberg[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de)
-
Dr. Anne M�ller, (email:
anne.mueller[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de)
-
Prof. Dr. J�rg Oberste, (email: joberste[at]ias.edu)
- Dr. Markus Sch�rer, (email: markus.schuerer[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de)
- Achim Wesjohann M.A., (email: achim.wesjohann[at]mailbox.tu-dresden.de)
-
and
as associate members Dr. Cristina Andenna, (email: candenna[at]libero.it)
Dr. Florent Cygler, (email: Florent.Cygler[at]univ-nantes.fr)
Prof. Dr. Annette
Kehnel, (email: Annette.Kehnel[at]uni-mannheim.de)
Dr. Ramona Sickert (email: ramona.sickert[at]mailbox.tu-dreden.de)
et J�rg Sonntag, M.A. (email: SonntagJoerg[at]web.de).
Our
Group forms part of a larger research confederation, the
All our research and
especially our academic series �Vita regularis�
tries to highlight the significance of religious orders and monastic houses as
excellent fields of observation for those who are interested in the
institutional mechanisms and the historical dynamics unfolding between ideals
and the practical realities of life. With our research we want to point out
that the history of medieval religious men and women is worth studying, not
only in view of the history of piety and spirituality, but also as a basic form
of communal life; as a rational mode to cope with the historical dimension of
human existence; and as an imaginative chapter in the human search for
identity. Moreover, medieval monasteries and orders deserve study for their
practical modes in handling organisational and functional problems, as well as
problems of leadership within communities. Finally,we study them especially for
the skills and techniques they employed in transforming their leading ideas (Leitideen,
proposita) into a continuous mode of life, by developing standard
models of behaviour in highly elaborate normative texts, by translating ideals
into examplary stories, and by establishing effective systems of self
observation and self regulation which made the history of the orders a history
of continuous reforms.
In order to guarantee proper and
enduring transference of norms and ideals into practical life, competent
authoritative agencies are needed. In the case of the vita religiosa
we are dealing with a set of internal and external authorities. We have, for
example, the coercive forces of the individual consciousness, the
pervasive powers of paranetic writings and charismatic preachers, the seductive
forces of exemplary, often charismatic, founder personalities, who formulated
the communities' propositum and who gave shape to norms and ideas
as the 'living rule' and in exemplary biographical patterns. Finally we have
the corset of an organisational system which prescribes the essentials of daily
life and routine in often meticulous detail, regulates legal procedures, and tries
to prevent deviant behaviour by elaborate sanctions and threats of punishment.
The religious orders founded in the
12th and 13th century are of particular importance for those studying the
history of the institutionalisation of the western forms of the vita
religiosa. In this period our research project finds its chronological
framing, it offers a most heterogeneous diversity of historical phenomena
growing out of the complex structures of interaction between the often
competing ecclesiastical and secular institutions at the time. Accordingly, a
vast variety of different sources is potentially relevant, calling for
pragmatic intervention, that is for concentration on certain
'points-of-maximum-effort'. After a series of detailed studies into the history
of the Cluniac Houses, the Cistercian Order, the
Premonstratensian Canons, the Grandmontines and the Carthusians
which are still being continued, we concentrate at present on the history of
the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the
Austin Friars.
Our research aim is a structual
comparision of the mechanisms of institutionalsation and maintenance, as well
as a comparative description of the course of crisis and reform in the medieval
history of the three orders. The investigations cover the following categorial
areas:
a) Leading ideas / Systems of
norm and values: We ask for the basic patterns and the spiritual
foundations of the respective form of life, especially for the spiritual ideals
involved in preaching, care of souls, in the fight against heresy and the
orders service for the church. The normative writings in the strict sense
(rules, constitutional documents, general chapter decisions, papal decrees and
relevant parts of the canon law) as well as norm-setting texts in the broader
sense (parenetic writings, commentaries to the rule, historical writings,
hagiography, testaments of the founders, etc.) are looked at as instruments of
reassuring self-definition, and constituents of identity, as well as means to
establish and enforce modes of behaviour specific for the order. Our
investigations focus in particular the place the orders gave themselves within
history in their own historical and hagiographical writings, the internal
discussions about the orders self understanding (e.g. in the theoretical and theological
writings) and finally the modes of formation of (individuell) subjects, by
means of symbolic representation of the norms as well as the consequences of
deviant behaviour as represented in the parenetic writings and in
Exempla-collections.
b) Organisation: Here we look
at instruments of leadership, or representations, jurisdiction and
administration (central ones like the general chapter, the definitorium, etc.
and regional ones, like provincial and conventual chapters, leadership of
individual houses) and their authorities, their organisational regulatives and
their political effectiveness, patterns in the appointment of officials,
modalities of membership, of communication and of internal control
(visitation).
c) Environment and social
function: Within this field of research we focus on the order's
relationships and interaction with local institutions, such as other orders,
the local church, and the secular community, as well as the place the orders
take within the hierarchy of the universal church. These relationships were
often competitive. The specific religious, cultural and social functions of the
order within its respective local context are investigated. Our main interest
here is their missionary activities. Legal, economic as well as mental forms of
integration in the political and social surroundings, as well as strategies of
self representation to the outside world, and, in turn, outside views of the
orders are investigated. Macro- and Microhistory meet here in exemplary
ways. Studies on the general history of the order, investigations into general
ideas and organisational devices of the order as a whole need completion in
local studies on the regional conditions within which each individual convent
has to exemplify its broader goals.(?)
In order to guarantee a structural
comparision, we work at the individual topics in a strictly parallel mode,
whereby the common field of research is ordered according to the three
categorical units, rather than according to individual orders.
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