RT Book
T1 Apostate nuns in the later Middle Ages
T2 Studies in the history of medieval religion
JF Studies in the history of medieval religion
A1 Makowski, Elizabeth M. 1951-
LA English
PP Woodbridge
PB The Boydell Press
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1671709020
AB To make a vow is a matter of the will, to fulfill one is a matter of necessity," declared late medieval canon law, and religious profession involved the most solemn of those vows. Professed nuns could never renege on their vows and if they did attempt to re-enter secular society, they became apostates. Automatically excommunicated, they could be forcibly returned to their monasteries where, should they remain unrepentant, penalties, including imprisonment, might be imposed. And although the law imposed uniform censures on male and female apostates, the norms regarding the proper sphere of activity for women within the Church would prohibit disaffected nuns from availing themselves of options short of apostasy that were readily available to monks similarly unhappy with the choices that they had made. 0This book is the first to address the practical and legal problems facing women religious, both in England and in Europe, who chose to reject the terms of their profession as nuns. The women featured in these pages acted, and were acted upon, by the law: the volume shows alleged apostates petitioning for redress and actual apostates seeking to extricate themselves, via self-help and litigation, from the moral and legal consequences of their behaviour
NO Includes bibliographical references and index
CN BX4220.E85
SN 9781783274260
SN 1783274263
K1 Nuns (Canon law) : History : To 1500
K1 Convents (Canon law) : History : To 1500
K1 Monasticism and religious orders for women : England : History : Middle Ages, 600-1500
K1 Convents (Canon law)
K1 Monasticism and religious orders for women ; Middle Ages
K1 Nuns (Canon law)
K1 England
K1 History