Medieval Monastic Education

Church History, March, 2003 by Kimberly Georgedes

Edited by George Ferzoco and Carolyn Muessig. New York: Leicester University Press, 2000. xv 237 pp. 60.00 [pounds sterling] cloth.

The articles collected in this work are "based on" (xiii) an international conference held at Downside Abbey on June 22-25, 1999, entitled "Medieval Monastic Education and Formation." The book contains twelve of the fourteen papers given at the conference, along with an introduction, and an additional article on twelfth-century female education. The articles are edited in such a way that they refer to and complement each other. The introduction by George Ferzoco gives a brief introduction to the previous historiography (perhaps too brief) and summarizes each article, all of which represent groundbreaking research in their respective fields. Many either build upon, modify, or correct Jean Leclercq's Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture (New York: Fordham University Press, 1960). Ferzoco begins the process in his introduction, when, after praising Leclercq's work as a "tour de force," he states that Leclercq "tends to synthesize various monastic approaches to education into a monolithic characterization of the learned monk" (1), a view this book seeks to dispel.

Perhaps the article calling most strongly for a revision of Leclercq's ideas, particularly regarding the separation of monastic and scholastic theologies is that of Constant J. Mews, "Monastic educational culture revisited: the witness of Zwiefalten and the Hirsau reform." Using the catalogue of the libraries of Hirsau and its offshoot Zwiefalten, and the writings of Conrad of Hirsau (ca. 1070-ca. 1150), Mews argues that the communities influenced by the Hirsau reform studied both secular and sacred authors, scholastic as well as monastic authors (with a special place for Anselm) and states that "to argue that the quaestio had no place in a monastic educational system does not represent the reality of the situation" (194).

The articles collected here are significant because many focus on previously unstudied aspects of monastic education. For example, Susan Boynton's article, "Training for the liturgy as a form of monastic education," discusses the importance of music in monastic education, which aided young boys in becoming accustomed to monastic discipline, ritual, and the hierarchy within the monastery. Isabelle Cochelin's chapter, "Besides the book: using the body to mould the mind--Cluny in the tenth and eleventh centuries," argues that the Cluniacs trained the bodies of oblates as well as the minds, and this bodily training included not only corporal punishment, but also emphasized physical and verbal imitation of older monks.

Of particular significance in this volume are four articles concerning the education of women. Two articles focus on Hildegard of Bingen, while another centers on Heloise ("Educating Heloise" by W. G. East), and the fourth on Beguine education ("Life, learning and wisdom: the forms and functions of beguine education" by Penelope Galloway). All four make significant contributions to the field. Beverly Kienzle's "Hildegard of Bingen's teaching in her Expositiones evangeliorum and Ordo virtutum" examines Hildegard's role as a visionary who transmitted the understanding received in her visions through her Ordo virtutum, the earliest known medieval morality play, and her Expositiones, which are closely tied to the former work. Both were included in the liturgy of Hildegard's community and, as such, were "vehicles for teaching and exegesis in the monastery" (74). Kienzle argues that Hildegard's approach is unique. Carolyn Muessig's "Learning and mentoring in the twelfth century: Hildegard of Bingen and Herrad of Landsberg" contrasts two approaches to education and spiritual development in German convents of the twelfth century--Hildegard's Benedictine convent of Rupertsburg and the Augustinian convent of Hohenburg reformed under Herrad of Landsberg. Muessig argues that although "Hildegard's approach to learning, revolved around her role as a prophetess" (99), her approach to the formation of her nuns through an elaborate liturgy, as well as her preference for noble nuns were in keeping with the early-twelfth-century Benedictine idea that wealth was a measure of virtue and the belief of some Benedictines that costly adornments increase the efficacy of their prayer (92). In contrast to Hildegard, Herrad prepared a text called the Hortus deliciarum for the moral formation of her canonesses, which "encouraged self-development through education, with an emphasis on chastity" (97), and included the use of pagan as well as Christian texts, with a focus of teaching her charges "what philosophers and other thinkers advised on moral development" (99).

Bert Roest, in his "Franciscan educational perspectives: reworking monastic traditions," treats Franciscan (specifically Bonaventure's) debt to monastic education in creating its own approach to learning, particularly from the Victorine and Cistercian traditions. While his article makes a significant contribution to this collection of papers, nevertheless I found his lack of reference to major works on the subject a bit troubling. At least three times on pages 168-69 he discusses trends in current studies on the issue, including, on page 169, "Historians like to single out ...," but in no instance does he cite specific studies to support his assertions. This lack of references is a weakness.