56 - Female Religious Life in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

Summary

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed a remarkable diversification of forms of the vita religiosa, and women were often at the forefront of these developments. Inspired by the gospel, and often open to the participation of the laity, many of the emerging modes of religious life combined the vita contemplativa and the vita activa, and their religious members occupied a liminal space between the cloister and the world. In many ways, these innovations can be seen as a response to the demands of a changing world. Already in the twelfth century, it became clear that traditional monasticism alone could not meet the needs of a shifting spiritual climate. Innovative experiments within the boundaries of traditional monasticism, such as the Paraclete community of Abelard (d. 1142) and Heloise (d. 1164) in the 1120s, were no longer an adequate response to a new female religiosity. Thanks to the research of Herbert Grundmann, and to the increasing importance of gender history as a subject of research, the topic of religious women, particularly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, has attracted growing scholarly interest.