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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture The short answer is No, a monk cannot inherit individually because he is bound to hold everything in common with his community. The Rule of St Benedict is quite strict on this (ch. 33: http://www.osb.org/rb/text/rbemjo1.html#33). If he receives a bequest it will belong to his monastery. Naturally, a monk who brings an inheritance to his monastery could be quite important for its economy. The long answer, of course, is more complicated and resistant to easy generalisation. Monks sometimes retained personal property: sometimes this was tolerated, sometimes reprobated. Stricter enforcement of the observance of poverty was often a feature of monastic reform movements. There were also "official" relaxations of the strict letter of the Rule. In this regard you could look at the institution of the "peculium" (property, usually money, ceded to the individual monk with permission of the superior, or held in trust for his use). An excellent starting-point is Barbara Harvey's "The Monks of Westminster and the peculium" (details here: http://brepols.metapress.com/content/x4jn344jh4u2wnv6/). Usually the *Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione* is the place to go for such questions, but unfortunately I don't have easy access to it any more. If you read Italian and can access it, I would look under headwords like povertà, peculium, eredità, &c. -- Paul On 2 March 2014 08:17, Eddie Mccaffray <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > In general I think it would he highly unusual, if not totally unheard of, > for an actual individual monk to inherit real property (unless you were > talking about a powerful layman holding the abbacy of a monastery, but even > in the periods when "monk" remained a fairly fluid category that's not > really a monk). You *may* also find examples of irregularities like this in > the earliest periods of western monasticism (say, before Charlemagne), I'm > not sure. However, that doesn't answer your broader question, "how separate > from the world is the monk, really," which is a complicated and interesting > matter. > > The answer will vary *considerably* depending on *when* in the Middle > Ages you're looking at, and also depending on order, individual house, and > particular individuals/situation. Some orders placed much more emphasis on > really finding a deserted, out-of-the-way area to build their houses in > (Cistercians in particular being associated with this preference and often > breaking virgin soil for their houses and supporting lands) while others > (Cluniacs and Benedictines in general, which are both more ambiguous > categories than "Cistercian") were often very closely intertwined with the > territorial nobility. In this latter case, though monks did not inherit, it > would be quite common for a particular family to be traditionally "allied" > with a particular house over several generations, a relationship that > included donations of land to the monastery, sending men from the family to > be monks in the monastery (where they may occupy positions of authority and > use their connections, lay and monastic, for the benefit of the family, the > monastery, or both) and even leasing land from the monastery to lay members > of the family. > > I can't point you to discussions of cases about disputed inheritance (I > think in general monasteries wouldn't have been able to and didn't make > serious claims on property held by families, members of whom were monks, > but I could be wrong), but there is lots of good work on the interaction > between nobility and monasticism - see Barbara Rosenwein's *To Be The > Neighbor of St. Peter* (1989), Constance Bouchard's *Sword, Miter, and > Cloister* (1987), and John Nightingale's *Monasteries and Patrons in the > Gorze Reform *(2001). You could also probably find some useful citations > in Kathryn L. Jasper's "The Economics of Reform in the Middle Ages," *History > Compass* 10/6 (2012), 440-454. > > Hope this helps, > > Eddie McCaffray > > > On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Cormack, Margaret Jean <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > >> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture >> >> Greetings all, >> >> In the MA, when someone joined a monastery, a nice donation was usually >> made to the institution. But how separate from the world is the monk, >> really? Are they now considered "out" of their kin group, so that when >> their parents die, they do not inherit? I realize that the ideal may differ >> from the reality, and am wondering if there are any feuds or court cases >> arising out of inheritance by a monastic (one who stays in the monastery, >> not one who leaves it to accept the said inheritance.) Or could the >> monastery claim the inheritance? Thanks, >> >> Meg >> > -- Paul Chandler, O.Carm. Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo Qld 4014 | Australia office: (07) 3246 9888 | home: (07) 3246 9894 [log in to unmask] ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion