Journal articles on the topic 'Augustian monasteries'

This article aims to explore the various possibilities for the operas arrangements for chamber ensembles preserved in selected monastic localities as a remarkable subgenre, which flourished from the end of the 18th century until the middle of the 19th century. Important music collections of monasteries in Moravia and Lower Austria were selected for the research, specifically: Nová Říše (formerly Neureisch, Premonstratensians), Klosterneuburg (Augustinian Canons), Göttweig (Benedictines) and Zwettl (Cistercians). By comparing the situation in different monasteries, it was possible to look at the issue in a broader geographic context, which reflects the customs and possibilities of neighbouring regions within the Habsburg Monarchy.

The article deals with Augustine’s De opere monachorum proposing some reasons to understand why Augustine did not mention a scriptorium in that work, despite he was writing to a monastic community. The key to the answer is taken from op. mon. 37.

Author of this paper juxtaposes several issues which are fundamental for mo­nastic concepts of St. Augustine and John Cassian, two figures that had the great­est impact on the development of the western pre-Benedictine monasticism. The difference in intellectual inspirations, personal monastic experiences, addressees of their monastic works and positions held by them in the institutional Church in­fluenced very deeply their teaching. Thus they interpret in a different manner an ac­count on the Jerusalem community (Acts 4:31-35) that – in their common opinion – began the history of monasticism. Cassian sees in it just the historical outset for this phenomenon while Augustine perceives it as a still valid model of behavior for his monks. They look differently at the relation of monastic communities towards the community of the Church but also at inner rules governing the life of monks in monasteries. Unlike Augustine, Cassian sees possibility of spiritual growth gained by monks through ascetical practices and decisions made on their free will. This anthropological optimism had played the key-role for the statement that Cassian made in the face of radical views of Augustine on the Grace and free will, formu­lated by him during the Pelagian controversy but also in other controversial issue, namely of possible legitimacy of lying under particular circumstances.

Abstract Realizing that a people can not be entirely conquered unless it is educated to embrace the culture and civilization of the conquerors, the Romans established the first schools in Britain in order to ‘romanize the sons of native chieftains’ [1]. With the arrival of Christianity, associated with the mission of Augustine in 597 AD, the churches took upon themselves the mission of teaching reading, writing and some religious knowledge, but few men benefited from this. The schools in the cathedrals and monasteries gradually grew to become universities, their main objective being to make students understand and explain the truth of God. “After the year 1000, cathedral schools replaced monasteries as cultural centres, and new forms of learning emerged. The cathedral schools were in turn supplanted by the universities, which promoted a “Catholic” learning that was inspired, oddly enough, by the transmission of the work of Aristotle through Arab scholars.”[2]. The paper analyses in broad lines the lengthy and burdensome process the English universities went through until the beginning of the 20th century in order to reach the performance of forming people capable not only of doing research and of disseminating knowledge, but also of contributing to the development of the country.

This article contains observations on the content of a hitherto unexplored Old Polish work of the late 17th century on religious and eschatological themes. Although its author, a Jesuit Stefan Wielowieyski, refers to 17th-century conventions of writing about hell and the final destiny of the human soul, he modifies these conventions considerably. The article demonstrates that the modification of writing about hell and the afterlife was influenced both by the teachings of eminent theologians (the Fathers of the Church, St Augustine and especially St Bernard of Clairvaux) and by new trends in Christian spirituality. Indeed, Polish mysticism was developing exuberantly in the Polish Nobles’ Republic at the end of the 17th century, and the new generation of the Counter-Reformation promoted ‘spiritual exercises’ in the monasteries.

The survey of medieval book bindings in the National Museum Library has focused on a group of codices from Augustinian monasteries in Roudnice nad Labem, Sadská and Jaroměř. The research methodology is based on accurate terminology, form processing and photographic documentation of medieval bindings. When determining the origin of codices, attention is paid to the characteristic features of the bindings, which can be an indicator of provenance. The Roudnice codices can be identified based on the craftsmanship of the metal elements and their compositional concept. Roudnice bindings have been divided into several groups according to the shape and finish of the corner and central pieces. Similarity in bookbinding processing, decoration technique, the use of identical structural and typological elements and materials of the same quality distinguish the Roudnice codices from contemporary domestic bindings.

Future priests should want the good of the faithful and of the Church. In the “monasterium clericorum”, common prayer was deemed the superior religious practice. Also meals were eaten together and the seminarians went to bed at the same time. Applying to the Episcopal seminary, a candidate committed himself to voluntary poverty. The bishop taught clerical students to love loneliness and to become virtuous – especially to have the virtues of love,obedience, justice, prudence, and first of all, humility. Manual work and studying were also obligatory. The bishop formulated his recommendations on the reading of classical authors in three works: “De ordine”, “Epistola ad Dioscorum” and “De doctrina Christiana”. Reading classical authors prepares seminarians for the study of Holy Scriptures and works by Christian writers.

During the 14th century, canon law gained considerable influence. All cases which related to clergy and Church property were dealt with solely by the ecclesiastical courts. During the preparatory phases of court proceedings, public notaries were very important. They were mainly involved in appointing legal representatives and producing verified copies of important documents. The objective of this article is to present two notarial instruments produced by public notaries: Materna, the son of Doctor Martin of Kladsko, and Nicolas, called Naso, the son of Henry of Chojnów. Both instruments were produced in 1419 and relate to the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in Kladsko. The documents are kept in the Kladsko parish archive under numbers A 4 b and A 12 i. Attached is a critical edition of both notarial instruments. The first instrument incorporates documents of Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia, Charles IV, King of Bohemia, and Arnošt of Pardubice, Archbishop of Prague, which show the ownership of properties in the Kladsko region and outside it. The second instrument records the appointment of legal representatives of the convent at the ecclesiastical courts. We do not have any direct evidence of the subject of the monastery’s dispute, but one can assume that it related to long-term disputes with the holders of fiefs in the Kladsko region. These disagreements related to economic immunity (unauthorised attempts to collect royal taxes for the monastery’s properties) and, to a lesser extent, other matters.

The Hospitallers of St. John and the female orders in Silesia in the Middle Ages The networks of the houses of the Hospitallers and of the female monastic orders in Silesia were similar (about 14 houses of the Hospitallers and 13 monasteries of nuns). There were many differences between these groups of clergy, too. The monasteries of nuns belong to various orders (e.g., Benedictines, Cistercian Nuns, Poor Clares, Dominican sisters, Sisters of St. Mary Magdalene, and the Canons of St. Augustine). Moreover, some houses of Beguines were active in medieval Silesia, too. The number of nuns is estimated to have been about 600, as opposed to the number of Hospitallers, which is estimated to have been about 200. The nuns were enclosed, while the Hospitallers were active in the pastoral care. The relations betwee both groups were not very intense. The priests from the Order of St. John were the chaplains and confessors of the nuns, or they coudl serve as the protectors of the property of the female monesteries (e.g., the Benedictines in Strzegom and the Beguines in Głubczyce). The Hospitallers, in return, asked the nuns for intercessory prayers in the time of the crisises, especially on the Isle of Rhodes. They also had contacts with the individual nuns, who were in some cases their relatives or neighbors. These relations were a sign of the absorption the Order of St. John by the local society.

Artykuł pokrótce przedstawia najstarszy monastycyzm w Afryce łacińskiej. Od pojawienia się chrześcijaństwa żyli tam ludzie, którzy składali ślub czystości i pragnęli całkowicie oddzielić się od dóbr materialnych i od świata. Spośród nich wywodziła się duża część duchowieństwa tamtego regionu. Największym krzewicielem monastycyzmu w Afryce łacińskiej był św. Augustyn. Jeśli chodzi o augustiańskie prawodawstwo monastyczne, możemy wskazać przede wszystkim Ordo monasterii pseudo-Augustyna. Co się tyczy innych najstarszych mnichów augustiańskich, trzeba wymienić Alipiusza, Ewodiusza i Possydiusza. Po śmierci św. Augustyna życie mnisze w Afryce kwitło nadal pomimo okupacji wandals­kiej; jedynie niektóre wspólnoty mnisze, aby się chronić, przeniosły się gdzie indziej. Najwięsze prześladowania cierpieli wówczas mnisi i mniszki w Afryce Prokonsularnej. Dużo wiadomości dotyczących monastycyzmu w Północnej Afryce na przełomie V i VI wieku znajdujemy w Vita św. Fulgencjusza z Ruspe, który po św. Augustynie był najważniejszą postacią dla rozwoju życia mnis­zego w Afryce łacińskiej. Na nim właściwie kończą się dzieje monastycyzmu starożytności chrześcijańskiej na tamtym obszarze.

The article demonstrates and discusses the following sources of Eugippius’ Rule: St. Augustine of Hippo (Ordo monasterii and Praeceptum); Rules: Regula quattuor Patrum and Regula Magistri; St. Basil the Great (Regula [a Rufino latine versa]); St. Pachomius the Great (Regula); Novatus Catholicus (Sententia de humilitate et oboedientia et de calcanda superbia); St. John Cassian (Conlationes Patrum and the De institutis coenobiorum); St. Jerome (Epistula 125, 9). In its second part, the article discusses the theological subject matter of the Regula of Eugippius, also pointing out the relevance of its message to both his times and our own.

This article studies and aims to present the catalogue of Novohispanic paintings with the theme of Our Lady of Guadalupe that are kept in the monastery of San Leandro in Seville. The study is structured in different sections: an introduction, a study that relates the New World and the monastery of San Leandro, the analysis of the iconography of Guadalupe and its arrival in Seville, as well as the works in the Augustinian monastery.

The music collections of the monasteries and convents in Central Europe contains many interesting sources. To date, they have been only partially accessed and catalogued. Furthermore, not only the music itself has to be considered, but also various other types of sources such as librettos, periochæ, inventories, invoices, requests, diaries, correspondence etc. These sources need to be described and evaluated in a detailed manner, and only on this basis may questions about the interweaving of repertoire or personnel between the different monasteries – both in the field of liturgical and secular music – arise. The aim of this paper is to take a closer look at a valuable source material, namely the libretti preserved in Klosterneuburg Abbey. The Klosterneuburg libretto collection currently contains a total of 77 exemplars in three different groups. The oldest prints date from the last decade of the 17th century to the most recent from 1765. The largest proportion is made up of the Lenten oratorios and those oratorios performed at the Holy Sepulchre during Holy Week (46 pieces). The second group represents a series of oratorios in honour of St. John of Nepomuk (14 pieces), and the last comprises various homage and occasional works (17 pieces). This paper follows on from the essay by Otto G. Schindler, who did the fundamental cataloguing of the libretti in the library of the Augustinian canons' monastery of Klosterneuburg in the second half of the 20th century. This text attempts to classify the librettos of the Abbey library according to the current state of research and to present some interesting examples.

Gardening was an important part of the daily duties within several of the religious orders in Europe during the Middle Ages. The rule of Saint Benedict specified that the monastery should, if possible, contain a garden within itself, and before and above all things, special care should be taken of the sick, so that they may be served in very deed, as Christ himself. The cultivation of medicinal and utility plants was important to meet the material needs of the monastic institutions, but no physical garden has yet been found and excavated in either Scandinavia or Iceland. The Cistercians were particularly well known for being pioneer gardeners, but other orders like the Benedictines and Augustinians also practised gardening. The monasteries and nunneries operating in Iceland during medieval times are assumed to have belonged to either the Augustinian or the Benedictine orders. In Norway, some of the orders were the Dominicans, Fransiscans, Premonstratensians and Knights Hospitallers. Based on botanical investigations at all the Icelandic and Norwegian monastery sites, it is concluded that many of the plants found may have a medieval past as medicinal and utility plants and, with all the evidence combined, they were most probably cultivated in monastery gardens.

Rare double-cover bindings in the collections of the National Museum Library Unlike contemporary embossed bindings, Gothic double-cover bindings are mostly undecorated, as priority was given to the binding’s useful function. Covered codexes were stored in a horizontal position and the wide overlaps on the front edge of the back panel were inserted between the front panel and the book block; after the fastening of the clasps, the parchment block was perfectly protected by this “packaging“ against the adverse effects of the surrounding environment. The originally Romanesque type of binding was used for larger format codexes and appeared practically throughout the Middle Ages, until the 16th century. In domestic literature, double-cover binding is wrongly included in the “shape and binding curiosities“ category; abroad, the terminology for describing and determining structural types of bindings with a secondary cover is not clear. During conservation research in the National Museum Library, a total of 45 Gothic double­-cover bindings was found in various states of preservation, from which we can determine a wide range of structural types and several methods of execution. A set of ten double-cover bindings published by Dr. Hamanová was expanded to include bindings from Augustinian monasteries

The Christianity in Britain has developed in the first centuries, spreading together with the Romanity, Constantine the Great himself being crowned emperor inthis providence. But after the withdrawal of the Roman troops in 410 by Emperor Honorius and after the invasion of the Saxons, Angles and Ithians, Christianity disappeared almost entirely, remaining only among the British natives who run from the Saxon invasion in the Cornwall peninsula, in Wales and on the NW coast of the province. Among the most active missionaries in this province, St. Patrick, who is considered to be the apostle of Ireland, was noted during the same period. Under his influence, the number of monasteries increased and the society that shepherded was profoundly changed. In this universe of faith St. Columba made himself known. Together with his 12 disciples, he headed to the kingdom of Dalriada, a maritime state encompassing the northern Ulster region of Ireland and the south-west coast of Scotland. Here, Saint Columba converted the entire monarchy, obtaining from the king an island to establish a monastery. He was granted the island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland, where he founded a monastery that will become a true focal point of culture and Christianity in the area. From Iona, Celtic Christianity spread throughout Scotland, converting the picts, then passing Hadrian’s Wave to Britain, where the Holy Bishop Aidan founded a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne. Later, St. Augustine of Canterbury, brought the Christianity back into the British Island, being sent there by Pope Gregory the Great.

No original Anglo-Saxon charter bearing an AD date earlier than 736 is extant, which seems to suit the traditional view that dating by the Era of the Incarnation, as opposed to the indiction or regnal years, was due to its popularisation by Bede's treatise De temponim ratione and his Historia ecclesiastica. ‘Consequently,’ in R. L. Poole's words, ‘not a few Anglo-Saxon charters which contain the date from the Incarnation have been condemned as spurious or corrupt.’ He then added that ‘there seems, however, to be no reason to suppose that the adoption of this era was originated by the treatise of Bede’, maintaining that it is ‘much more likely’ that it was derived from the Easter Tables of Dionysius Exiguus, arguing on the basis of the accounts of St Wilfrid's instruction at Rome and his speech at the Synod of Whitby in 664, that the saint championed the use of the Dionysian computation. Kenneth Harrison has shown how likely this is on various grounds. These include a defence of four charters bearing AD dates in the seventh century and arguably connected with Wilfrid. Harrison's case has been accepted by Nicholas Brooks, though not by Anton Scharer, and Harrison later brought two more charters into the discussion. The earliest of Harrison's charters, the foundation charter of Bath, dated AD 676 and attested by Wilfrid, and a charter concerning Ripple, Worcestershire, dated AD 680, will be discussed in detail below. Three others, all attested by Wilfrid, belong to the group of charters which Anton Scharer and Patrick Wormald associate with Eorcenwald, bishop of London, who also attests: Casdwalla of Wessex's grant of Farnham, Surrey, dated (problematically)AD 688, Eorcenwald's grant of Battersea, Surrey, dated AD 693, and his charter for Barking monastery, in which his visit to Rome is dated (again problematically) to AD 677. It is entirely possible that Wilfrid was responsible for the inclusion of the annus Domini in these charters, even if their actual drafting was done by Eorcenwald or one of his circle; the absence of the annus Domini from the other credible ‘Eorcenwald’ charters is significant. (Eorcenwald attests the Bath foundation charter, but so does Wilfrid.) Harrison's remaining charter is Æthelred of Mercia's confirmation of a grant in Thanet to the Kentish abbess Æbbe, dated AD 691 in the best manuscript.6 Significantly, this is the only one of the thirteen charters between 675 and 737 in Elmham's Historia Monasterii S. Augustini Cantuariensis to bear an AD date. Wilfrid does not attest — the confirmation carries no witness list — but Brooks comments that, of the four charters originally discussed by Harrison (Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, nos 42, 43, 51 and 72), only BCS 42 [the Thanet charter] has no evident connection with Wilfrid. Yet it shows Wilfrid's friend and protector, King Æthelred of Mercia, intervening in Kent by force in January 6gi (‘dum ille infirmaverat terram nostram’) at a time when the see of Canterbury was vacant. Wilfrid was by this time again running into difficulties with the Northumbrian king, and his biographer claims that he had been offered the succession to the see of Canterbury by Archbishop Theodore himself.

<em>Tromba marina</em>, instrument wywodzący się z monochordu, znany od czasów średniowiecza, podobnie jak wiele innych, nie znalazł swojego trwałego miejsca w muzyce profesjonalnej. W niniejszym artykule zwraca się uwagę na pewien „epizod”, który stał się udziałem tego specyficznego chordofonu, a któremu z literaturze muzykologicznej nie poświęcono dostatecznej uwagi.<p>Instrument ten miał swoje pięć minut w muzyce francuskiej około połowy XVII wieku. W 1660 Lully wykorzystał <em>trombae marinae</em> w w ustepach baletowych opery Cavallego <em>Xerxes</em>, wystawionej z okazji ślubu Ludwika XIV z Marią Teresą Habsburg, zaś w 1661 roku na dworze Króla Słońce powołano zespół składający się pięciu z muzyków grających na krumhornach i <em>trombae marinae</em>. Dlatego prawdopodobnie Molierowski Monsieur Jourdain na kartach „Mieszczanina szlachcicem” wyraził pragnienie dołączenia interesującego nas instrumentu do zespołu grającego na organizowanym w jego domu przyjęciu.</p><p>Jedynym znanym z nazwiska wirtuozem tego instrumentu był Jean Baptiste Prin (ok. 1699-1742), który sporządził zachowany do dzisiaj zbiór 216 utworów na <em>tromba marina</em> oraz napisał w roku swojej śmierci traktat <em>Memoire sur la trompette marine, </em>w którym wyraził żal, że ukochany instrument „umiera” wraz z nim.</p><p>Spośród wielu różnych nazw, jakie nadawano temu kuriozalnemu instrumentowi (<em>tuba marina</em>, <em>tuba maritima</em>, <em>Trumscheit</em>, <em>Marientrompette)</em>, najpóźniejsze historycznie, bo pochodzące dopiero z XIX wieku, są nazwy wskazujące na używanie go przez zakonnice. Są to trzy określenia w języku niemieckim bazujące na złożeniach Nonne- (zakonnica) z dodaną nazwą instrumentu lub określeniem jego funkcji w zespole: Nonnengeige, Nonnentrompette, Nonnenbas. Ich istnienie dowodziłoby, iż na niemieckim obszarze językowym jeszcze w tym stuleciu zakonnice posługiwały się w swojej praktyce muzycznej interesującym nas instrumentem.</p><p>Cecil Adkins i Alis Dickonson, autorzy monografii poświęconej historii, budowie i zachowanym egzemplarzom <em>tromba marina</em>, a także związanej z tym instrumentem praktyce wykonawczej i repertuarowi, wskazali 29 ośrodków zakonnych (w tym 26 klasztorów żeńskich), w których kultywowano grę na <em>Nonnengeige</em>, konstatując iż była to specjalność zakonnic (w mniejszym stopniu zakonników) z Europy Środkowej. Do wymienionych przez tych autorów ośrodków, dzięki najnowszym badaniom jesteśmy w stanie obecnie dodać kolejne: klasztor augustianek św. Jakuba auf der Hülben w Wiedniu oraz serwitek w Insbruku oraz trzy kolejne klasztory w niemieckojęzycznej części Szwajcarii. Co więcej, możemy także poszerzyć geograficzny obszar występowania w klasztorach praktyki gry na <em>tromba marina</em> w kierunku północno wschodnim. Mamy bowiem dowody kultywowania jej w klasztorach benedyktynek z Sandomierza i Lwowa oraz klarysek ze Starego Sącza, a także w bursie jezuickiej w Krakowie. Dodatkowo można przypuszczać, iż instrumenty takie posiadał także klasztor cystersów w Obrze.</p><p>W klasztornej praktyce muzycznej instrument mógł pełnić cztery różne funkcje: być wykorzystywany w praktyce śpiewu chorałowego, co jest najsłabiej udokumentowane, służyć jako instrument fundamentalny realizujący wraz z <em>organami basso continuo</em> lub jako substytut trąbek w obsadach wokalno-instrumentalnych, ponadto zespół złożony w trzech lub czterech <em>trombae marinae</em> z towarzyszeniem kotłów mógł wykonywać fanfary.</p><p>Jeśli chodzi o obszar dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, najwięcej informacji na temat kultywowania gry na <em>tromba marina</em> pochodzi z Sandomierza, gdzie grające na tym instrumencie zakonnice są nam znane z nazwiska i gdzie zachowały się rękopisy poświadczające tę zapomnianą praktykę.</p><p> </p>SUMMARY<p><em>Tromba marina</em>(trumpet marine) – the instrument originated from the monochord and known from the Middle Ages – was not widely used in professional music. That special chordophone had, however, its day in French music about the mid-seventeenth century. In 1660 Jean Baptiste Lully used trombae marinae in ballet sections of Francesco Cavalli’s opera Xerxes, and in 1661, at the court of Louis XIV a group of fi ve musicians was formed, who played crumhorns and trombae marinae. The only virtuoso of this instrument, known by name, was Jean Baptiste Prin (ca. 1699-1742), who made a collection of 216 pieces for trumpet marine (tromba marina).</p><p>Out of the many names of the instrument (tuba marina, tuba maritima, Trumscheit, Marientrompette), the historically latest names are the nineteenth-century ones showing that it was used by nuns. There are three names in German, based on the compounds Nonne (nun) with the name of the instrument or with designation of its function in a musical group: Nonnengeige, Nonnentrompette, and Nonnenbas, which would prove that nuns still played the trombae marinae in the German-speaking area as late as in the nineteenth century.</p><p>Cecil Adkins and Alis Dickinson, the authors of the monograph devoted to tromba marina, listed 29 monastic centers (of which 26 were nuns’ convents), in which the playing of Nonnengeige was cultivated, and come to the conclusion that in the eighteenth century this was the specialty of Central European nuns. We can add some more names to those recorded by the two authors: the St. Jakob Augustinian nunnery in Vienna, the Servite Nunnery in Innsbruck, and three convents in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Furthermore, we can also broaden the geographical range of the practice of playing tromba marina towards North-East because we have evidence that it was cultivated in the convents of Benedictine nuns of Sandomierz and Lvov, the convent of St. Clare in Stary Sącz, as well as in the Jesuit chapel in Krakow.</p><p>The instrument in question exercised different functions in the performing practice in monasteries: it was used in the practice of chorale singing, it served as a fundamental instrument in the basso continuo section, it appeared as a substitute for trumpets in the vocal-instrumental forces, fi nally – as part of a group consisting of three or four trombae marinae and kettledrums, it played fanfares.</p>

In 2005, during the composing of the Inventory of the Moveable Cultural Heritage of the Church and Monastery of St Francis of Assisi at Krk, three wooden statues were found in the attic. These had once belonged to a lavish Renaissance triptych at the centre of which was a figure of the Virgin (107 x 45 x 27 cm), flanked by the figures of St John the Baptist (c. 105 x 28 x 30 cm), an apostle with a book (c. 93 x 32 x 22 cm), and, in all likelihood, St James the Apostle. A trace of a small left foot in the Virgin’s lap indicates that the original composition was that of the Virgin and Child. It is highly likely that these statues originally belonged to the altar of St James which mentioned by Augustino Valier during his visitation of the Church of St Francis of Assisi in 1579 as having a pala honorifica . Harmonious proportions, fine modelling of the heads, beautifully and confidently carved drapery of the fabrics, together with almost classical gestures, all point to a good master carver who, in this case, sought inspiration in Venetian painting of the 1520s and 1530s. When attempting to find close parallels in the production of Venetian wood-carving workshops from the first half of the sixteenth century, without a doubt the best candidates are two signed statues from the workshop of Paolo Campsa de Boboti: the statue of the Risen Christ from the parish church of St Lawrence at Soave in Italy, dated to 1533, and the statue of the Virgin and Child in a private collection in Italy, dated to 1534. To these one can add a statue from the Gianfranco Luzzetti collection at Florence, which has been attributed to Campsa’s workshop. Judging from all the above, the statues from St Francis’ might be dated to the 1540s. In the parish church of Holy Trinity at Baška is a wooden triptych which, according to a nineteenth-century record, was inscribed with Campsa’s signature and the year 1514. When Bishop Stefanus David visited the Chapel of St Michael at Baška in 1685, he described in detail this wooden and carved palla on the main altar dedicated to St Michael, noting that the altar is under the patronage of the Papić family who had founded it and made considerable donations to it. The high altar in the Church of St Mary Magdalene at Porat, also on the island of Krk, has a polyptych attributed to Girolamo and Francesco da Santa Croce. Until now, it has been dated to 1556 - the year of the dedication of the altar and the church. However, more frequently than not, a number of years could pass between the furnishing of an altar and its dedication. With this in mind and having re-analyzed the paintings, the polyptych can be dated as early as the previous decade. Until now, the Renaissance statue of St Mary Magdalene (105 x 25 x 13 cm), originally part of an altar predella but today housed in the Monastery’s collection, was not discussed in the scholarly literature save for its iconography. Based on the morphological similarities between the statue of St Mary Magdalene and the three statues at Krk, it can be concluded that they were carved by the same master carver. Written sources inform us that after 1541 Paolo Campsa was no longer alive. Great differences between the works signed by Campsa have already been the subject of scholarly debate and it is known that due to high demand, his workshop included a number of highly skilled wood carvers. In the case of Krk, perhaps the master carver was an employee at Campsa’s workshop who outlived him and who, after its closure, went his own way and was considered good enough to be hired by fellow painters from the Santa Croce workshop. Installing a statue in a predella was a rare occurrence in sixteenth-century Croatia and Venice alike. Even in the case of Campsa. Reliefs were used more frequently. However, this arrangement was customary on contemporary flügelaltaren in the trans-Alpine north. It ought to be considered whether this northern altar design might provide a trail which would lead to a more specific location of a possible master carver.

Bernard of Clairvaux, ordering the young Aelred to write a treatise on charity, recognized that he was no ordinary theologian. The work of De speculo caritatis confirmed this belief and demonstrated theological competencies of the Abbot of Rievaulx which placed him among the constructors of the Cistercian school of charity. His insightful analyses attest to his in-depth familiarity with the progress of God’s love penetrating the human heart. It certainly goes beyond the knowledge derived from the Augustinian theology, propagated in the monasteries at that time, traces of which are visible throughout his work. It is also the effect of his formative training with the novice monks during his years of being the Novice Master. Possibly, it is also influenced by his very own experience of God, reaching the levels of mystical closeness to God. All these components, void of the structure of the work subjected to the purpose outlined by St. Bernard, yielded quite a coherent doctrine on charity, from which logically follow mystical implications, i.e. the experience of God Himself. There is a summary and a few conclusions from these contemplations. 1. Alread does not explicitly talk about the human condition of viatoris much emphasized by contemporary theology, but he understands the man’s feeling of being lost without God and it is in Him that the Abbot sees completeness of human existence. Following the Augustinian conviction, he implies that nothing and nobody can give the man absolute happiness, except for God; this is why he will not cease seeking in his heart, his deepest actions of his spiritual powers, until he rests in God’s essence, truth and goodness. This is what the Abbot calls the eternal sabbath of God, which by itself is the internal life of the Holy Trinity, yet on the outside, it appears as the purpose of perfection for all creation. The man, naturally, has this divine sabbath etched deeply in his heart, since this is the disposition he received from his Creator, being made of His image (having spiritual faculties of God) and likeness (operations of these faculties drawing to God). 2. Love is the rule according to which the world exists and operates, and the man has an important role to play in it, due to his memory, conscience and freedom, whose operations liken him to God. Thanks to them, he can not only decipher the loving intentions of the Creator, but respond to them in a loving collaboration, which leads him to a happy union with God. This collaboration could not have been shattered even by the sin, redeemed through Christ’s blood, which became the beginning of a new loving proposition made by God and now available in the sacrament of faith and practice of caritas. Certainly, on the part of the man, this collaboration is now more difficult, since the sin weakened his spiritual powers, which in their forgetfulness, error and foolishness lean toward the objects of this world through physical desire. Human love, willing to return to its original form of collaboration with God, must now be ascetic in its character, expressed as mortifications, denials and sacrifices. Aelred calls it, „circumcision of the inner and the outer man”. 3. The circumcision stands for the internal work that the man must do to root the vices out of his heart and install virtues in their place. It is a slow process of spiritual comeback to God, which lasts throughout the entire life of a man and culminates in the eternal sabbath of God. At the same time, it is the time of receiving graceful love, continually supported and animated by God. It is a process of spiritual internalization, i.e. further and further departure from the exterior and physical objects so as to concentrate more and more on the internal and spiritual object of God’s presence in the deepest layers of the human heart, where the full union with God takes place. This union begins with the sacrament of faith received at baptism. Aelred only briefly mentions the mystery of God inhabiting (taking residence in) the human soul, which takes part with God’s grace poured out by the Holy Spirit, but he concentrates more on the idea of the sabbath, the rest, which makes possible participation in the life of God. 4. Aelred and the whole Cistercian school knew that the process of internalizing proceeds according to human nature; this is why he first mentions the basic grace of the humanity of Jesus Christ. The idea was to provide the man, through Jesus Christ, with physical and pious stimuli to make him fall in love with God’s charity and engage his feelings and senses so as to free him of his physical desires and direct his will toward the spiritual love. It is done through the practice of meditating the humanity, contemplating the Scriptures, especially the events from the life of Jesus Christ and his followers. Later on, special types of grace start to appear: compunction (compunctio), or the so called, God’s visits (spiritalis uisitationes), which depending on the stage of spiritual advancement in a man are designed to either awaken those who are asleep, i.e. numb, or console those who are saddened on their way, and lastly, to reward and sustain those who yearn for heavenly goods. Actually, Aelred distinguishes three moments within the long process of God’s intervention into the human soul, reflected in three stages of spiritual life: fear of the beginners, purification of the advanced and love of the accomplished. 5. This is where we can see most of the mystical repercussions of his teaching on charity. The initial visits make room for the next ones, and once their mission of inciting to greater love is complete they face the various trials and undertake, in the name of God, a number of mortifications, followed by practice of virtues. These, in turn, lead to even greater love. For example, the Abbot describes pouring of God’s grace into the human soul through basting in the glory and wisdom of God, so that the soul is lost in love and desires to become united with God in eternity. These are but special graces of God affecting human feelings; however they are not the unity with God, although they appear to be its powerful manifestations. It is only through engaging the will, which combines the functions of the other spiritual powers, that the unity with God’s will is accomplished, signs of that is the willingness of the soul to undertake mortifications and sacrifices for God. Then, it is not a surprise that „the yoke of Christ is sweet and the burden is light”. 6. The union of soul with God is truly about aligning the will (love) of the man with will (love) of God Himself, i.e. being directed by His Spirit and allowing to be transformed by His Divine caritas. It is possible, because caritas, like any human love, weaves into the human psychological structure, marking three distinct stages: choice (predilection), growth (action and desire) and fruits (attaining the object). Within the right choice Aelred distinguishes three types of love: of God, neighbor and oneself, although all of them lead to God, as their source. The Abbot pictured this in the idea of three sabbaths, complementing at the same time the concept of the eternal sabbath. The decisive moment of love is its movement, its growth: actions and desires, which make the man constantly prone and open to God, to unite with Him (rest in Him) finally in the eternal sabbath. 7. Alread makes a longer stop here to discuss the role of affections (affectus, passiones), which influence the actions of will. Besides reason, they are the cause of love’s movement. Their role is indispensable, because they lend inciting sweetness to a mystical encounter with God and stimulate to greater love. By themselves, however, they can be deceitful, when they are not subjected to the will. This is why he proposes to move not through the affections, but according to them, so that they are guided by the will. This is especially true in the case of love of neighbor. The general rule then is that neighbors would rejoice together in God and that each one would rejoice God in each other. Against this background, the Abbot promotes the spiritual affects received from God, rational ones encouraging developing virtues, official ones inducing to love a person, natural ones telling to love one’s friends and foes. He also permits physical affects, attracting with their outer appearance, as long as they do not lead to a vice. 8. The growing love finds its outlet in the fruits, which constitute the third and last component of the internal structure of love operating within the man. It is about rejoicing in the object attained, resting for spiritual powers on an object, which one desired in one’s love. Aelred considers temporary and eternal fruits. The latter refers to the ultimate union with God in heaven, after death, which is the rest in the eternal sabbath of God. We can taste it here on earth to ease human frailty, through contemplation and the sweetness of special graces of God. The former, on the other hand, appreciates the role of others (parents, teachers, instructors, friends) in acquiring the true wisdom of life; we use all of them to sweeten our lives and delight our spirit. Particularly helpful here is a friend, if there is one, who through spiritual friendship can share in our joys and sorrows, as well as the most intimate desires of the soul, so that they merge into unity in spirit. Two years ago, during the Cistercian Studies Conference at the 43rd International Medieval Studies Congress in Kalamazoo, Mi, a discussion was started as to the mystical competencies of Aelred of Rievaulx and his possible mystical predispositions. Our contemplations can cast some more light on this issue.

The intensity of the Semi-Pelagian controversy in the Gaulish Church of the fifth and sixth centuries The controversy over Augustine’s predestinarian views was transferred to Gaul after the Vandal conquest of Africa. The Pelagian controversy was characterised by the participation of several prominent figures and the convention of seven councils. The question, however, is why the Semi-Pelagian controversy was of such a different character. The answer is to be found in the context of the participants in the debate: the unique charac- ter of the Gaulish Church, the influence from the monasteries and the distinctive political setting of this region. John Cassian, founder of the monasteries of Marseilles, took the view that God’s grace comes as an answer to the beginning of a good will in the human person and the free will in man can either neg- lect or delight in the grace of God. The same sentiments were soon heard from the monastery on the island of Lerins. The reaction to this stance by Prosper of Aquitaine led to the literary involvement of Augustine. For several decades the bishops of Arles and Vienne attempted to raise their city’s ecclesiastical status above the other cities of Southern Gaul – a phenomenon typical of the public life of this region. In 529 Caesarius, former monk of Lerins, of aristocratic descent and bishop of Arles, held a synod at Orange. This synod affirmed a diluted form of the Augustinian position. All the elements of the character of this controversy can be found in the person of Caesarius who was also mainly responsible for the formulation of the canons of this synod.

Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian priest in the Monastery of St. Thomas in Brünn (Brno, Czech Republic) as well as a civilian employee who taught natural history and physics in the Brünn Modern School. The monastery’s secular function was to provide teachers for the public schools across Moravia. It was a cultural, educational, and artistic center with an elite core of friar-teachers with a well-stocked library and other amenities including a gourmet kitchen. It was wealthy, with far-flung holdings yielding income from agricultural productions. Mendel had failed his tryout as a parish priest and did not complete his examination for teaching certification despite 2 y of study at the University of Vienna. In addition to his teaching and religious obligations, Mendel carried out daily meteorological and astronomical observations, cared for the monastery's fruit orchard and beehives, and tended plants in the greenhouse and small outdoor gardens. In the years 1856 to 1863, he carried out experiments on heredity of traits in garden peas regarded as revolutionary today but not widely recognized during his lifetime and until 16 y after his death. In 1868 he was elected abbot of the monastery, a significantly elevated position in the ecclesiastical and civil hierarchy. While he had hoped to be elected, and was honored to accept, he severely underestimated its administrative responsibilities and gradually had to abandon his scientific interests. The last decade of his life was marred by an ugly dispute with civil authorities over monastery taxation.

This article traces ideas on the link between mood-swing and brilliance, from Greek/Roman to present times. From Plato, Aristotle, Seneca and the physician Aretaeus the story moves to the monasteries: Anthony, Cassian, Benedict, and Augustine ending with Luther who suffered recurrent depression. With his opponent Erasmus we enter the Renaissance. The physician Ficino picks up the Aristotelean concept of melancholy and outstanding achievement. Burton illustrates the two poles of melancholy in a poem. 19th century physicians in France, Pinel and Gachet develop this concept. The German physicians Kraepelin and Leonhard take us into the 20th century, and we end in the US, with DSM-5 in 2013. The terminology develops from melancholy, via acedia, cirkuläres Irresein, manic-depressive to bipolar disorder. Through these terminological and cultural differences a consensus appears that extremes of destructive mania and deep, suicidal depression must be avoided. To achieve this medication is advised. Creativity is located in the mood just under mania, light hypomania. The term ‘bipolar creativity’ is coined to shift attention from creative persons with a bipolar disorder to the process of creativity itself. It demands the enthusiasm, high self-esteem, and quick thinking, typical of hypomania. In this process light depression is also important. It’s critical stance can play a positive role in breaking the ground for new creations. It is not only the high mood but the alternation of opposite moods that gives scope to creativity. There is a fortunate ‘match’ between mild bipolar disorder and the bipolar creative process.

The hypothetical interpretation of the beginnings of monastic architecture in Hungary in the eleventh century as corresponding to the Italian origin of the clergy cannot be proved, and the beginning of the dominating role of a three-apsidal, axially organized basilica in Hungary cannot be traced earlier than the last quarter of the eleventh century.The dominance of the type, which has been considered in Hungarian art history since the nineteenth century as a “national” building type, can be dated as of the last quarter of the eleventh century. It is not only the problem of monastic architecture, because the same typology—in other dimensions—is also characteristic of other church buildings—cathedrals and provostry churches.However, it is apparent that both in the case of monasteries and in other genres of church buildings, the Hungarian solutions are minimal and less complicated. There is an important written source concerning the value of the patronage of church buildings. The so called Estimationes communes iuxta consuetudinem regni (i.e. common estimations) go back to Romanesque times and they were still accepted in 1516 by the printed edition of Decretum tripartitum by István Werbőczy. The classification of ecclesiastic property was governed by two criteria: the value of the building and the possession of the right of sepulture.The architectural heritage of the Cistercians appears as a rather uniform stylistic phenomenon. This uniformity was interpreted in the art historical literature as a contribution by the order supposedly having an own building organization. But the hypothesis that the workers, the conversi of the order were among the other craftsmen and builders of churches and monasteries of the order has been revealed as a legendary interpretation of art history.The most active period of the Hungarian Cistercians began with the privileges given by King Béla III to the Order and with the foundation of three abbeys in the 1180s. The very rational and well-organized building activity of the Cistercians and also the effective control coming from the top of their centralized organization has been presumably considered as unusual by contemporary observers.To prevent the excessive influence of secular people and to improve the education of the monks, the centralized organization was proposed for the Benedictines too. This reform was initiated by popes of the time about 1200, Innocent III and also Honorius III. It seems that the necessary reform as well as the solution of the problems by adopting the experience of the Cistercians influenced the spread of the regular monastery building under the evident intention of imitation. Quadratic interior courts framed by open galleries and surrounded by the most important common rooms, including the chapterhouse and refectory of the monastery, appear evidently from about 1220 in Hungarian Benedictine architecture.The Praemonstratensians, a reform order, was a nearly contemporary parallel to the Cistercians. In the twelfth century and also at the beginning of the thirteenth they were in fact in a straight contact with the Cistercians, who exercised a kind of control over the order, whose rules were not derived from the Benedictine rules but were based on the rules of St. Augustine. Mainly the centralized organization of the order could correspond to the Cistercian model. The main difference between these reform orders concerned their patronage. While the Cistercians in Hungary were mostly under royal patronage (mainly after the visit of a delegation of Cîteaux to the Court of Béla III in 1183), the Praemonstensian constructions were mainly foundations by private patrons.It seems that contrary to partly surviving hypotheses and forgeries in old art historical literature, no royal court and also no monastic order was practically involved in architecture or building praxis, including schools of architecture. Their relationship was different, corresponding to their liturgy and to the representation of their self-image.

AbstractThis paper traces back the sources of our present legal system and of market economy to Medieval Europe which itself benefited from Hellenistic and Roman legal culture and commercial practices. Roman provinces placed Rome in the wider Greek cultural and commercial world. If Aristotle was already transcending the narrow polis-based conceptions of his predecessors, after him Hellenistic Civilization saw the emergence of a new school of philosophy: Stoicism. The legal thought in the Latin West will hence be characterized by Cicero’s writings and its Stoic sources. The Roman legal system was similar to the later northern European customary law and the English common law; Roman law was evolutionary and customary. The rise of Western individualism, whether it dates back to St. Augustine in the fifth century, or to the two Papal Revolutions of Gregory I (establishing the nuclear family as the core of individualism) and of Gregory VII, also played a crucial role in shaping the western legal tradition. The paper describes the main forces that led to this second (Gregorian) revolution. Monasticism is one of them. Benedictine monasticism plaid a leading role in the Peace of God Movement. Hence collective oath-taking by groups in the name of peace was essential in the founding of cities and in the formation of guilds. Europe’s economic resurgence in the Eleventh Century was on the basis of the creation of the rule of law by the Peace of God movement. This movement also allowed for Europe’s agricultural economy to progress. Indeed, the European Middle Ages is one of the major periods of technological innovation in the history of the world. The Gregorian Revolution itself was supported and financed by the Commercial Revolution: Italian bankers sustained Papal reformers against the Emperors. The independence of the Italian cities and provinces reveals one of the most important consequences of the Gregorian Revolution: the polycentricism of Western Europe. This Revolution also witnessed the first large number of political pamphlets in European history; the Gregorian clergy emphasizing a compact theory of government. Soon after, the order of Cistercians was founded (1098) and underwent spectacular growth during the next two centuries. The Cistercians accepted no rents or labor services from feudal donors but would take only full possession of land to do with it as they wished.These monasteries were the most economically effective units that had ever existed in Europe, and perhaps in the world, before that time. Finally, the Magna Carta (1215) that will be so influential on modern political thought can be seen as a direct consequence of the Gregorian Revolution.