"Holy Monk-Bishops. Discourses on the Compatibility of Monasticism and Episcopacy in Hagiographic Vitae (11th-13th Centuries)"
Editor: Dr. Daniela Bianca Hoffmann
Although monks had become bishops since the 4th century, the monk-bishop remained a paradox, controversial figure in the Latin Middle Ages. The main reason for this was that monasticism required the withdrawal from the world and its values, while the powerful bishop had to act within the world. The compatibility of the two forms of life, which had been questioned again and again since Late Antiquity, was newly challenged in the High Middle Ages. During this period monasticism diversified and a more unified, pope-centered church was institutionalized. The problem became just as diversified as monasticism itself: Every monastic branch had to solve it in its own way and develop its own episcopal ideals, because according to canon law a monk-bishop had to continue his monastic life.
This project explores the paradox of monk-bishops in its literary communication during this period; it studies the hagiographic vitae of holy monk-bishops from contemplative communities to find out how monastic and episcopal life could be combined in an exemplary way and blended into the ideal of a monk-bishop. It analyses the vitae of Benedictine, Cistercian and Carthusian bishops written between c. 1050 and c. 1250 in England, France and the Kingdom of Burgundy. It wants to figure out, a) how the ideal of a monk-bishop was described and how he was legitimized in these vitae, and b) in which ways the episcopal ideals of the Benedictines, Cistercians and Carthusians as well as the respective attitudes to the church hierarchy within these vitae differed from each other.
This project aims to fill a research gap by studying the episcopal ideals of diverse monastic branches during the High Middle Ages in a systematic and comparative way. Furthermore, it wants to contribute to the controversial question whether monastic elements within the episcopal ideal were gaining or losing importance due to the 11th-century Church Reform and the Investiture Controversy.