Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England: With an Edition of Richard Fox's Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517

ISBN-13: 9781840146097 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 192 str.

Barry Collett

Opis

This gendered translation of the Benedictine Rule for women in 1517 is also a handbook for women on exercising authority, management skills and the art of good governance, including monastic property and relations with the outside world. Barry Collett here provides a modern facsimile edition of Fox's translation, written in the tumbling phrases of passionate prose that make Fox stand out as a literary figure of the English Renaissance. Collett also provides an extensive introduction that argues that Fox's experience as an administrator and senior political adviser with special responsibility for foreign affairs, mainly with Scotland and France, the political situation in 1516, and social concerns Fox shared with Thomas More, all provide keys to understanding this translation of the rule. Richard Fox was king's secretary, Lord Privy Seal and Bishop of Winchester, and founder of Corpus Christi College in Oxford. He was an administrator who reflected much on the proper exercise of authority and responsibility at all levels, especially through negotiated co-operation. He strongly supported monastic reforms, and when a group of abbesses requested a translation for sisters unable to understand Latin, this was his response. It provides a unique window into the world of female spirituality just a few months before Luther's reformation began. The exercise of God-given authority by women is described in the same-possibly stronger-terms as for men. Fox expressed no reservations about the exercise of authority by women. His indifference to sexual distinctions arose, paradoxically, from his preoccupation with the skilful use of God-given functioning of authority in a hierarchical society.

Recenzje

'The introductory essay provides a vivid account of some of the last abbesses and prioresses drawn mainly from episcopal and archiepiscopal visitation records.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History 'Collett's affection for Fox and his translation make this book a valuable contribution to the study of early modern English nuns.' The Catholic Historical Review

Spis treści

Contents: English society and Here begynneth: the question of good govermamce in 1516; The monastic life and Here begynneth: the ambivalence of the monastic vocation; Making the translation during autumn and winter of 1516: Here begynneth and the early modern Englishwoman; Three Epilogues: Fox, the nuns, and the book; editorial notes: Here begynneth the rule of seynt Benet: Richard Fox's translation of the Benedictine rule for Women, 1517; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Barry Collett