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20 - Religious Life

from Clerus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2022

By
Elizabeth Makowski
Edited by
Anders Winroth  and
John C. Wei
Anders Winroth
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
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Summary

The term religio, like many others in the technical vocabulary of the medieval Church, had more than one meaning. Since the early Middle Ages, it had denoted monastic observance, the life lived by the “regular” monk or nun, but it could also be used to refer to a more general dedication of one’s life to God – the latter meaning in no way eclipsing the former. Bishop Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240), for example, employed the term in his defense of beguines: “We do not consider religious only those who renounce the world and go over to a religious life, but we can also call religious all the faithful of Christ who serve the Lord under the one highest and supreme Abbot.” And this usage was not restricted to spiritual directors who saw the merits of a more interiorized form of religious life.

Keywords

MonasticismWomen ReligiousMonks/NunsCanon “Periculosa”
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law , pp. 396 - 403
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

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