Das Konverseninstitut der Zisterzienser im Spannungsfeld von Anspruch und Wirklichkeit.Ein Vergleich rheinländischer / norddeutscher und flandrischer Klöster vom 12. bis 14. Jahrhundert

Employee: Feise, Marion

This research project concerns itself with patterns and strategies of social order in the Central Middle Ages.  The formation of groups and the attribution of belonging to a group as well as the treatment of their members will be investigated in regard to the example of the lay brothers in the Cistercian Order.
The lay brothers, lay sisters in nunneries respectively, were no homogenous group; they were members of the monastery of a segregated rank beneath that of monks and nuns.  The areas of conflict within which the lay brothers lived deserve special attention: the monastic ideal, the pragmatic reality of everyday life and personal piety.  Within these parameters, research will uncover if lay brothers really only served as mere laborers to the monastery so that the other monks could devote themselves to prayer, or if the lay brothers could assume specific positions beyond that.
The primary sources such as the Statutes or catalogues of regulations and customs (consuetudines) for the lay brothers demand an inconspicuous work life with a small prayer output.  Research has picked up this normative attribution to the lay brothers and focused on the economic potential of this group without taking other areas of life into account.  Even though lay brothers were officially not allowed to strive for or experience theological education, a closer look reveals that they obviously found other approaches towards piety.  Quite a few of the lay brothers were subsequently venerated as beati or saints.
Their way of expressing piety was often perceived as disruptive and begs the question of how lay brothers were conceived of.  The small amount of research conducted on the lay brothers’ spirituality has also led to little consideration of some types of sources such as registers of memorial days like menologies and hagiologies as well as the not yet fully exhausted potential to gain insight from exemplary literature (exempla).  Collections of miracles and edifying literature contain a large portion of stories about lay brothers, who stand out because of their religious experiences or who shall serve as role models.