By Force and Fear: Taking and Breaking Monastic Vows in Early Modern Europe (Book)
Title: By Force and Fear: Taking and Breaking Monastic Vows in Early Modern Europe
Author: Anne Jacobson Schutte
Abstract: Drawing on record of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican Archive, I examine nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows (83% of them from men) submitted to the pope and adjudicated by the Congregation of the Council between 1668 and 1793. I consider petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and find that in about half of these cases the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. I also reach important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families, which were by no means as loving and gentle as some previous scholars have claimed. Parents and other close relatives were the main agents of physical and psychological force, and resultant fear, used to force unwilling adolescents into religious houses. Most dared not petition for release until those who had forced them were dead.
Year: 2011
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780801449772

By Force and Fear: Taking and Breaking Monastic Vows in Early Modern Europe (Book)
Title: By Force and Fear: Taking and Breaking Monastic Vows in Early Modern Europe
Author: Anne Jacobson Schutte
Abstract: Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican Archives. I examine nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the pope and adjudicated by the Congregation between 1668 and 1793. Contrary to previous assumptions, 83% of them came from men. The petitions arrived in Rome from all over Europe, a few from Latin America. In about half these cases, the Congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. This study invalidates the picture of increasingly egalitarian and warm relations between early modern elders and offspring. Primarily for financial reasons, elders (including elder siblings) used a battery of cruel psychological and physical tactics to force adolescents into monastic life. The victims were so intimidated that most dared not petition for release until those who had forced them were dead.
Year: 2011
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780801449772

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