Dennis Martin wrote:
>
> I would have a somewhat different take on this. From my experience with the Schlitpacher/Cusanus monastic reform materials, I would say that this can be taken fairly literally. Relief from some liturgical duties need not mean a relaxation of religious vigor. Of course, since the schedula does not specify, we can't be sure, but had there been serious laxity, it probably would have been noted or at least described with more severe language.
>
>
> rt!
> s. But others know this material better than I.
>
> Written reports of visitations were often laconic but that need not mean that we should read between the lines largely with suspicion. They avoided putting details in writing, partly to protect confidentiality and partly precisely because monastic life left much to the _discretio_ of the superior, for reasns I have tried to explain in more detail elsewhere (_Fifteenth-Century Carthusian Reform_, esp. ch. 4 and 6).
>
> Dennis Martin
>
> >>> [log in to unmask] 11/19/00 09:22 AM >>>
> Dear Susanne,
>
> Rather than deviationists, the nuns may have been simply remiss in their
> duties, nor particularly ready to go back to regular observance. These
> faults may not have been so minor if the visitor, after noting that 'the
> convent of nuns has become lax in the observance of the rule, although
> no major excesses were found and all submitted to the visitor'
> immediately adds that 'some burdens of divine worship have been eased
> and it is hoped [he cautiously leaves himself out of the picture] that
> the undertaking will prosper on account of the zeal and discretion of
> the abbess.' This sounds like compromise to me - the nuns promised
> obedience in exchange for partial release from their liturgical duties.
> But the situation was far from settled, if the visitor relied on the
> abbess' qualities for a continued improvement. Furthermore - and here I
> tread on unknown ground, because I am not a religious, but perhaps some
> Benedictine will correct me if I am wrong - the liturgy (Mass and Divine
> Office) is central to the Benedictine rule. Thus, to excuse the nuns
> from liturgical worship would be like telling the Dominicans that they
> really don't need to preach, or to the Templars that they need not
> defend the Holy Land, or to Mother Teresa's nuns that they don't have to
> tend the sick. Cheers, Luciana
> --
> ****************************************
> Luciana Cuppo Csaki
> Societas internationalis pro Vivario
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
> ****************************************
<Thanks, Dennis, for a refreshing viewpoint. However, trusting the
superior (which, as you say, is the expected thing in ecclesiastical
circles) is why many convents went to pot.
Cheers, Luciana
--
****************************************
Luciana Cuppo Csaki
Societas internationalis pro Vivario
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
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