Mo, Lily Anne (2002) Public Bodies and Private Spaces : Locating Cloistered Contemplative Discourses in Female Franciscan Spirituality in Thirteenth-Century Umbria
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Mo, Lily Anne (2002) Public bodies and private spaces : locating cloistered contemplative discourses in female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth-century Umbria. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3247/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Public Bodies and Private Spaces: locating cloistered contemplative discourses in female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth-century Umbria. © Lily Anne Mo 2002 Ph.D. Higher Degrees Committee, Faculty of Arts Department of History, University of Glasgow April, 2002 PUBLIC BODIES AND PRIVATE SPACES: LOCATING CLOISTERED CONTEMPLATIVE DISCOURSES IN FEMALE FRANCISCAN SANCTITY IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY UMBRIA. Abstract The thesis explores how far enclosure was pivotal in shaping the female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth-century Umbria as cloistered and contemplative. It focuses on how enclosure influenced the development of representations of female urban sainthood, with particular reference to three Umbrian saints; Clare of Assisi, Clare ofMontefalco and Angela ofFoligno. The issue of enclosure came to the fore because of the success of the Franciscan movement in promoting the apostolic life, which emphasised the itinerant life, evangelisation and participation within the urban community. However, women who aspired to follow these values were instead directed towards introspective, contemplative seclusion. The claustration of Clare of Assisi exemplified this type of response. Using a combination of a wide range of sources, the nature of enclosure and the processes by which claustration was consistently articulated and promoted are reconstructed. My research reveals that the creation of the cloistered ideal was a negotiated process. The first chapter, Challenging the stabilitas loci, examines the significance of hagiographic sources, in the form of vitae and canonisation proceedings, in revealing the nature of enclosure for religious women, and, by utilising a wide number of saintly examples, shows how often enclosure was in reality broken by women. The following two chapters concentrate on the construction of male textual authority and the importance they placed on the seclusion for religious women. Chapter 2, The regularisation of chastity: between doctrine practice, examines the theological arguments that were put forward in the development of monastic rules for women and how they reflected a trend that assumed that professed religious women ought to remain within the cloister. In doing so, the regularisation of the cloister emphasised the preservation of the chastity of nuns, through their affiliation to established orders, their supervision and material provision. Chapter 3, The impact of enclosure on the development of the Rule ofSt. Clare (1212-1253), concentrates on the consequences of the regularisation on the Franciscan second order. It examines the influence of Honorius III and Gregory IX, and Innocent IV on the regulation of conventual space in the Rule of St. Clare. The popes re-evaluated enclosure to make it a central tenet of her rule, to the detriment of the cura mulierium and her desire for absolute poverty. The subsequent chapters analyse the extent to which enclosure was a mediated phenomena between the hagiographer, the saint and the saint's supporters. Chapter 4, Interpretations of monastic space: Clarissan contemplative spirituality and the conflicting pressures of enclosure and pilgrimage, presents a caveat against the acceptance of the discourse of the cloister as hegemonic and wholly reflective of social reality. It repudiates recent studies, on Clarissan conventual space, which unquestioningly accepted representations of the Poor Clares as a cloistered order, and read the archaeological evidence of San Damiano as such. Evidence from the vitae show that the competing pressures, a lack of material resources and the transformation of the convent into a pilgrimage site, prevented the implementation of a coherent plan. Chapter 5, Duties to neighbours: miracle working as justification for breaking the cloister, is a comparison between the canonisation proceedings and the vita of Clare ofMontefalco. It reveals how the questions presented in the canonisation proceedings provide a framework of reference for witnesses testifying to the sanctity of Clare. While the questions reveal how the discourse of the cloister is constructed, the subjectivities of certain witness demonstrate disjuncture as they fail in their attempt to represent Clare as a cloistered contemplative abbess. Reading the vita against the canonisation proceedings reveals how her violations of the cloister were reframed as miracle working. Chapter 6, Mapping inferiorities: Angela ofFoligno 's recollection ofmystic union as mediated through Brother Arnalda in her Memoriale (c. I 298), analyses the production of a mediated collaborative text on the "mental landscape" occupied by a woman influenced by Franciscan spiritual values. It reveals how far interiorised contemplation and articulation of the mystic experience for Angela went beyond the scripturally-based, schematised, progressive model provided by her male clerical scribe. Table of contents Acknowledgements List of illustrations ii Introduction 1 Chapter I. Challenging the stabilitas loci through hagiographic sources. 13 Chapter 2. The regularisation of chastity and the construction of legislative ideals 37 upon enclosure. Chapter 3. The impact of enclosure on the development of the Rule of St. Clare (1212- 74 1253) Chapter4. Inte1pretations of monastic space: Clarissan contemplative spirituality and 116 the conflicting pressures ofenclosure and pilgrimage Chapter 5. Duties to neighbours: miracle working as justification for breaking the 154 cloister. Clare ofMontefalco's cloistered spirituality as presented in Beranger' s Vita sanctae Clarae de Cruce Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augusti ( c.I309-I3I6) and her canonisation proceedings, Sept. I3I8 -July I3I9. Chapter 6. Mapping inferiorities: Angela of Foligno 's recollection ofmystic union as 188 mediated by Brother Arnalda in her Memoriale (c. 1298) Conclusion 241 Appendix I. Database of Umbrian female saints in the thirteenth century 243 Appendix 2. Key to database ofUmbrian saints 246 Bibliography 250 Acknowledgements In the course of researching and writing this thesis I have benefited from the knowledge support and guidance of many friends and colleagues. Above all, I would like to thank my supervisors, Marilyn Dunn and Andrew Roach, who have untiringly read and commentated on its many versions. Any errors or lapses left standing are a result of my own obstinacy. I acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of the Arts and Humanities Research Board, and the Kesson Award at the University of Glasgow, which has enabled me to continue my research here and fund two research trips to Rome and Umbria. It was at the British School in Rome, where I had the pleasure of meeting scholars and artists in an environment where engaged thought is a part of everyday life. I would especially like to thank Vic James and Gill Murphy and Janet Robson for the stimulating discussions had over morning coffee at the Vatican bar, and Jane Brettle for the title of the work. The presentation of the thesis would have been much poorer and delayed without the expertise of Ealish Wilson in computer aided design, who relieved me of the stress of reproducing the illustrations, and tidied up my amateurish attempts. In the difficult months in which the manuscript was completed, I owe a great debt of gratitude to an online of community of scholars, writers and artists, the chalupas, for their unfailing humour and support. Finally, this is dedicated to Faye Moffett, who has listened to me talk endlessly of nuns, acted as a 24 hour lay reader, and dispensed milk and cookies with infinite generosity. List of illustrations, maps and tables. Map 1 Map of the Spoletan valley 7 Table 1 Processes and canonisations between 1198-1431 21 Table 2. Religious establishments occupied by female Umbrian saints 29 Fig. 1 Plan ofFontevraud abbey 123 Fig. 2 Plan of San Damiano, Assisi 126 Fig. 3 San Damiano- longitudinal section of the original building 129 Fig. 4 San Damiano- longitudinal section of the present building 130 Fig. 5 Plan of Santa Chiara 143 Fig. 6 Plan of the commune walls 148 Fig. 7 Detail: Santa Chiara crucifix 151 Fig. 8 Detail: Fresco of Clare ofMontefalco, Virgin and Christ child 177 Fig. 9 & 10 Fourteenth-century fresco, Santa Croce, Montefalco 178 Fig. 11 Table of Bonaventura, Mind's Journey into the Soul 217 Fig. 12 Figurative map of Angela's progress in the seven supplementary steps 224 of the Memoriale 11 Introduction Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to explore how far enclosure was pivotal in shaping the female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth century Umbria as cloistered and contemplative. For centuries, a woman's spiritual role was understood in terms of her commitment to a vow of celibacy and seclusion to a remote