Crises of cenobitism: abbatial leadership and monastic competition in late eleventh-century Flanders

This paper argues that the now-abandoned notion of a ‘crisis of cenobiticism’ in the late eleventh and early twelfth century should be replaced by one in which endemic institutional processes and increased competition among Benedictine institutions led to a profound shift in the societal position and government of ‘old-style’ monasticism. As an analysis of evidence relevant to the abbey of Saint-Bertin shows, a series of events and setbacks had a significant effect on the abbey’s prominent position in Flanders in the middle decades of the eleventh century. Unable to compete effectively with th... Mehr ...