Catholic Nuns and English Identities. English Protestant Travellers on the English Convents in the Low Countries, 1660–1730

Corens, Liesbeth

doi:10.1017/s0034193200013029

Cited by 14 publications

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“…Boundary crossing was both literal and figurative for English nuns: in order to enter convents “beyond the seas,” Catholic women had to embark on a journey that the English state attempted to outlaw – although, as Liesbeth Corens has shown, convents on the continent were of great interest to English Protestant travelers in the late 17th century. For members of Mary Ward's order, this initial journey was followed by others: nuns traveled back to England for missionary work and throughout Europe founding new houses for the order.…”

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Devotional Culture and Intellectual Community in the English Convents in Exile

Lay

2017

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Throughout the 17th century, English convents located in France, Portugal, and the Low Countries offered Catholic women an alternative to England's religious settlement. These exilic communities enabled multiple forms of exchange, grounded in the devotional cultures that flourished within specific religious orders, including Mary Ward's unenclosed order modeled on the Jesuits; new foundations of Benedictine, Augustinian, and Poor Clare convents, among others; and the continuous community of Syon Abbey, forced into exile at the dissolution. In the last decade, editorial projects and data collection have begun to reveal the richness and variety of surviving textual materials, and recent scholarly work has built upon these recovery efforts to demonstrate the significance of the convents in exile to the national and religious identity of English Catholics, Civil War and Interregnum politics, and the development of canonical literary history.

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Devotional Culture and Intellectual Community in the English Convents in Exile

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2017

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English Convents in Catholic Europe, c.1600–1800

Kelly¹

2019

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In early December 1563, at its twenty-fifth session, the Council of Trent turned its attention to reform of both male and female religious orders. The resulting chapter five of the Council's decrees stipulated that all communities of female religious should be strictly enclosed. Pointing out that it was renewing the constitution of Pope Boniface VIII, passed in 1298 and known as Periculoso, the Council commanded 'all bishops' to ensure that 'the enclosure of nuns be restored wherever it has been violated and that it be preserved where it has not been violated'.The bishops were told to press ahead with these measures regardless of any opposition, 'even summoning for this purpose, if need be, the aid of the secular arm.' Putting it bluntly, the Council fathers declared that 'no nun shall after her profession be permitted to go out of the monastery, even for a brief period under any pretext whatever, except for a lawful reason to be approved by the bishop … Neither shall anyone, of whatever birth or condition, sex or age, be permitted, under penalty of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto, to enter the enclosure of the monastery without the written permission of the bishop or the superior.' 1 These decrees were affirmed by Pope Pius V's bull, Circa Pastoralis, three years later. 2 It was under these censures that the new convents founded in exile operated. After a postulant's arrival at the convent as discussed in the previous chapter, it was this enclosed environment that defined their new life. Following a few months as a postulant, the community, usually in the form of a chapter meeting, would then decide whether to accept the candidate as a novice. As prescribed by the Council of Trent, the individual would also be interviewed by a representative of the local ordinary to establish their identity and origins, as well to ascertain the credibility of their vocation, plus that it had in no way been coerced. If successful, the candidate would be clothed and take a new name in religion. After their novitiate, which usually lasted a year, the same process of internal convent discussion and external interview took place before an individual proceeded to their final vows and profession as a nun. 3 With their new surroundings defined 1

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Introduction

2019

English Convents in Catholic Europe, c.1600–1800

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Catholic Nuns and English Identities. English Protestant Travellers on the English Convents in the Low Countries, 1660–1730

Cited by 14 publications

References 18 publications

Devotional Culture and Intellectual Community in the English Convents in Exile

Devotional Culture and Intellectual Community in the English Convents in Exile

English Convents in Catholic Europe, c.1600–1800

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