BAILEY - Religious Poverty

American Society of Church History
Religious Poverty, Mendicancy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages Author(s): Michael D. Bailey Source: Church History, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 457-483 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4146256 . Accessed: 09/04/2013 08:41
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and Religious Poverty, Mendicancy, in theLateMiddleAges1 Reform

MICHAEL D. BAILEY exerteda powerful force The idea and theideal ofreligious poverty the Middle Ages. "Take no gold, or silver,or copper in throughout your belts,no bag foryourjourney,or two tunics,or sandals, or a had commandedhis apostles.He had sternly Christ warned,"it staff," a is easier for a camel to go throughthe eye of needle, than for someonewho is richto enterintothe kingdomof God." And he had one ofthefaithful, who had asked whathe needed to do to instructed live themostholysortof life,"ifyou wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give your money to the poor, and you will have voltreasurein heaven."2Beginning with these biblical injunctions, and of the castingoff wealth poverty, worldlygoods forthe untary The dominatedmuch of medieval religiousthought. sake of Christ, men and women to a moreperfect desirefor impelleddevout poverty with the wealth the material of new heightsof piety,while disgust movementsand more radical heresies alike. churchfueled reform Franciscans as so clearlyillustrated Often, by thecase of theSpiritual in and the lines and fraticelli the laterthirteenth fourteenth centuries, and even devout believerfrom condemnedheretic shifted separating on how one understood the reversedthemselves entirely depending the Christian ideal of Moreover, poverty religiouscall to poverty.3
1. An earlyversion of thisessay was presentedat a symposiumon medieval povertyheld I would like to thankNancy van in November 2000 at ClaremontGraduate University. Deusen fororganizingthe symposiumand invitingme to participate.I am also grateful to Robert E. Lerner for reading a later version of the article and offeringvaluable commentsand suggestions. 2. Matthew 10:9-10, 19:24, and 19:21 respectively;quotes taken from the New Revised in this articleare my own. StandardVersion. All othertranslations Franciscans: From 3. On SpiritualFranciscansgenerally,see now David Burr,The Spiritual Protestto Persecution in the Century afterSaint Francis (UniversityPark: Pennsylvania on the issue of poverty,see David Burr,Olivi State University Press, 2001). Specifically The OriginsoftheUsus PauperControversy and Franciscan (Philadelphia: UniverPoverty: The Doctrineof Poverty: sityof Pennsylvania Press, 1989); Malcolm Lambert,Franciscan theAbsolute and theApostlesin theFranciscan Order,1210-1323, 2nd ed. Poverty ofChrist 1998). (St. Bonaventure,N.Y.: Franciscan Institute,
at Iowa State University and MichaelD. Baileyis assistant of history professor at theUniversity MellonFellowin theHumanities ofPennsylvania.
? 2003, The American Society of Church History 72:3(September Church 2003) History
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interactedpowerfullywith and helped to shape many major ecoin medievalEurope.As LesterLittle nomic,social,and culturaltrends demonstrated over two decades ago, forexample,developingideals of religiouspovertywere deeply intermeshed with the revitalizing of the and thirteenth centuries eleventh, twelfth, European economy and did much to shape the emergingurban spirituality of that period.4 Ideals of voluntary withothersocial povertycontinuedto interact and culturalforcesin the laterMiddle Ages as well, throughout the fourteenth and in the This fifteenth century particularly early century. formof povertywas, needless to say, a matter quite apart fromthe that besetso manypeople veryreal and entirely involuntary privation in medieval Europe. Yet,because of its powerful religiousovertones, the idea of povertywas as powerfuland compelling,in different of ways, as its reality. My principlefocusherewill be on the relation to and the some of diverse results reform, voluntary poverty religious thatdeveloped fromthe interaction of these two powerfulreligious ideals. The idea of reform had been central to thechurchthroughout the Middle Ages, indeed since the earliest days of Christianity.5 became an overEspeciallyin thelate Middle Ages, however,reform in concern areas of Christian as riding many society, it would obviremain the ously throughout profoundreligious upheavals of the sixteenthcentury.6 was always, to some extent, reform Religious concerned withquestionsofreligious was poverty, giventhatpoverty such a centralChristian ideal. Nevertheless, to approaches povertywhat sortofpoor lifewas proper, and for whom-could and did vary The religiousclergy from thesecular,religious differed considerably. ordersdiffered and even within individualorthemselves, amongst different to ders, sometimesdramatically approaches poverty might of parish churches, prevail.7Beyond cloisterwalls and the confines the idea of povertyalso seized many among the laity of Europe.
4. Lester K. Little,Religious and theProfit Poverty Economy ofMedievalEurope(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell UniversityPress, 1978). 5. Foundational here is GerhartLadner, The Idea ofReform: Its Impacton Christian Thought and Actionin theAge oftheFathers Press, 1959). (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University He extends his study up through later periods in his articles "Reformation"and "Reform: Innovation and Tradition in Medieval Christendom," both reprinted in and Art,2 vols., Studiesin History Ladner, Imagesand Ideas in theMiddle Ages: Selected Storia e letteratura 155 and 156 (Rome: Edizioni de storiae letteratura, 1983), 2:519-31 and 533-58. 6. A good overview is provided by Gerald Strauss,"Ideas ofReformatio and Renovatio from the Middle Ages to the Reformation," in Handbook 1400-1600: Late ofEuropean History, MiddleAges,Renaissance, and Reformation, ed. Thomas A. Brady,Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, and JamesD. Tracy,2 vols. (Leiden: Brill,1994-95), 2:1-30. 7. Again the Franciscans are the most obvious example. See above, n. 3.
AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,
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felt ofwealth,lay people often Concernedoverthemoralimplications vitaapostolica drawn to and inspiredby theimpoverished themselves ordersof thechurch, lavishing especiallyby themendicant practiced on thesepoor orderstremendous supportand, somewhatawkwardly, called Certainlay people even feltthemselves greatmaterial wealth.8 in did enter establife. When not the this to participate they directly became ordersoutright, lishedmendicant tertiaries, semiregular they or theybecame beghardsand beguines,associated loosely and informallyat best withthe approved religiousorders.9 all of the Here I want to focuson two examples thatwill highlight issues just mentioned-poverty,and especially mendicancy,as an issue forboth secular and religiousclergy,different approaches to within individual and even between orders orders, religious poverty and the hostilities held for the attraction many lay people, poverty thatall ofthesecomplexand intermeshing and conflicts approachesto in the which debates over at could least, very instigateor, poverty will be that of the The first be could example developed. poverty series of attacks a prolongedand bitter so-calledBaslerBeginenstreit, directedat the allegedly on beguines,includingFranciscan tertiaries, and illicitvoluntary practicedby these devout, mendicancy poverty and extremely successful This extended semireligiouslay people. occurredin the cityof Basel from1405 to 1411 wave of persecution in from theDominicanpriory and was orchestrated mainlyby a friar will conThe second thatcitynamed Johannes example Mulberg.'o
see esp. 99-169. 8. A centralargumentof Little,ReligiousPoverty, 9. On the beguine movement, see Ernest W. McDonnell, The Beguinesand Beghardsin on theBelgianScene(New Brunswick, with MedievalCulture, N.J.:Rutgers SpecialEmphasis Walter Simons, "The Beguine Movement in the Press, 1954); more recently University de l'Institut SouthernLow Countries:A Reassessment,"Bulletin historique belgede Rome in the Medieval Low 59 (1989): 63-105; Simons, Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities of PennsylvaniaPress,2001). An insight1200-1565 (Philadelphia: University Countries, ful overview of the entireproblem of the "lay religious" in the Middle Ages is Kaspar des sine regula:Bedeutung, Rechtsstellungund Selbstverstaindnis Elm, "Vita regularis in Hiiresieund vorzeitige und friihneuzeitlichen mittelalterlichen Semireligiosentums," des HistorischesKollegs, im Spiitmittelalter, ed. Franti'ek ?mahel, Schriften Reformation Kolloquien 39 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998), 239-73. The foundational study of the Movereligiousimpulses thatdrove such movementsis HerbertGrundmann,Religious and the Linksbetween theMendicant in theMiddleAges: TheHistorical ments Orders, Heresy, with the Historical and Thirteenth Woman'sReligiousMovementin the Twelfth Century, trans.Steven Rowan (Notre Dame, Ind.: Universityof Foundations Mysticism, ofGerman Notre Dame Press, 1995), 139-52 and 241-45. and particularly on Mulberg, see most recently Sabine von 10. On the Beginenstreit Heusinger, "Beginen am Mittel- und Oberrhein zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts," des Oberrheins 148 (2000): 67-96, esp. 69-87, and Heusinger, die Geschichte Zeitschriftffir und von Dominikanerobservanz Johannes MulbergOP (t 1414): Ein Lebenim Spannungsfeld Quellen und Forschungenzur Geschichtedes Dominikanerordens,n.s. 9 Beginenstreit, (Berlin:Akademie Verlag, 2000), 47-82. She cites all importantearlier literature.
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cerntheintensedebate about thebeguineway oflife, again centering and mendicancy, which mainlyon theissue of thebeguines' poverty tookplace some two decades laterat thegreatecumenicalCouncil of Basel, and the profound defense of beguines and lay povertyin Johannes generalmade thereby the Dominican theologian Nider.11 thatmake a compariThese two examples share many similarities son betweentheminteresting and intriguing. and rather munFirst, in both occurred the same the location, danely,they cityof namely in each instance Basel. Also, themain pointscontested were virtually the same, both ostensibly and in reality as well (forthe actual points and dispute oftenlay hidden beneaththe apparentissues of conflict under debate). Finally,in each case, thecentralfigure was a member of the Dominican order.Yet Johannes and Nider Johannes Mulberg had farmorein commonthanjust thesharedhabitoftheblackfriars. thatis, of theobservant movement, Theywere bothleading members In fact, the movement forreform, withinthe Orderof Preachers. the two men knew each otherpersonally. The youngerfriar, Nider,had served fora timeas a traveling companionof theolder Mulbergand in admired his mentor the reform.12 deeply Althoughtheysharedthe same deeplyheld reformist Niderand Mulberg convictions, however, in reached completely of the virtueand conclusions terms opposite value ofbeguines.Mulbergwas a harshpersecutor, while Nider was one of the most ardentdefendersof the beguine status in the early fifteenth As I shall demonstrate underhere,thereal factors century. and in of the late Middle lyingsuspicion persecution beguines Ages involved issues of poverty.Thus the different approaches takenby attitudes Mulbergand Nider to beguineswere shaped largely by their towardand concernsover poverty of the as developed in thecontext reform movementwithintheirown order.Ultimately, thattheirpositionson beguines differed so completely was due to a subtle yet
11. Nider is best known as an important on witchcraft. See now Werner authority Der Formicarius des Johannes Nider1437/38: zu denAnfdingen der Studien Tschacher, im Spiitmittelalter (Aachen:ShakerVerlag, 2000); and europdiischen Hexenverfolgungen MichaelD. Bailey, Demons: andReform inthe Late Middle Ages Battling Witchcraft, Heresy, Park:Pennsylvania StateUniversity towitchcraft, Press, 2003).In addition (University Nider'swritings onwhathetermed the"layreligious"-see mybookalsodiscusses esp. 64-73. Also on thissubject Van Engen, see John "Friar on Laypeople Johannes Nyder in theWorld," in VitaReligiosa imMittelalter: Livingas Religious Kaspar Festschrift ffir Elmzum70. Geburtstag, ed. FranzJ.Feltenand NikolasJaspert, Berliner historischen Studien31, Ordensstudien 13 (Berlin: & Humblot, Duncker 1999),583-615.Another zu Johannes recent Niders deutschen generalstudyis MargitBrand,Studien Schriften, Dissertationes historiae fasc.23 (Rome:Institutum historicum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 1998). 12. Of Mulberg, Niderwould write, "socius itineris sepe esse meruihuius sanctiviri." Formicarius 99-100. Nider, 2.1,ed. G. Colvener Johannes (Douai, 1602),
AND REFORM RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY,
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in the observantDominican attitudetoward poverty profoundshift that occurredpreciselybetween the periods when these two men, apart,were most active. only a generation The reform movementwithinthe Dominican order, like reform most-other movements springing up in many-indeed, ultimately, in Middle the church the late orders of Ages, was deeply religious both withinthe concernedwith issues of proper religiouspoverty, The first of Dominican orderand in theworld at large.13 proponents in their of strict reform were,as we shall see, extremely interpretation in the and zealous and application equally properreligiouspoverty The earlyobservant enforcement of theirunderstanding. positionon within strife the order-one need only caused tremendous poverty between spiritualand conventual thinkof the betterknown conflict over povto appreciatethe divisionsthatdisagreements Franciscans all in a from could order-and, generate appearances, erty religious movementto ultimatefailure. would have condemned the reform Critical to theexamplesunderconsideration here,theearlyobservant also to have conflict on seems generatedsignificant position poverty and thedevoutlaity, ofreform thosewho sought betweenproponents ideal. to sharein the Dominicanorder'smendicant of reform The first Dominican phase gave way, however,to a very ofobservants distinct secondphase, and thefirst gave way generation no less zealous in theirideals, but more to a second generation, to attain theirgoals. This pragmaticand flexiblein theirstrategies of reformers ensured the ultimatesuccess of the second generation movementwithinthe Dominicanorder.Froma small miobservant to dominatethe century, theygrew,by theend of thefifteenth nority in other mirrored ordersas well, situation OrderofPreachers (a many came to dominate).This in which observantmovementsultimately forthe to a position, moretraditional also returned second generation mendicantorders,of close support for devout lay beguines. More it seems, to a position common to many generallythey returned, of the late orders medievalchurch, advocatingan essentially religious and for to whatever the the extent monastic laity, morality spirituality
13. For an overview, see Kaspar Elm, "Reform-und Observanzbestrebungenim spitmitund ObservanzbetelalterlichenOrdenswesen: Ein Oberblick," in Reformbemiihungen im spiitmittelalterlichen ed. Kaspar Elm, Berlinerhistorischen Ordesnwesen, strebungen Studien 14, Ordensstudien 6 (Berlin:Duncker & Humblot, 1989), 3-19; Dieter Mertens, Ideen - Siele - Resultate," in des 15. Jahrhunderts: "Monastische Reformbewegungen von Kircheund Reichzur Zeit der Konzilienvon Konstanz(1414-1418) und Basel Reform (1431-1449), ed. Ivan Hlava'ek and Alexander Patschovsky (Constance: Universititscarried out under the auspices of verlag Konstanz, 1996), 157-81. On religious reform und Ordensreform late medieval churchcouncils,see Dieter Mertens,"Reformkonzilien und Observanzbestrebungen, in Reformbemiihungen 431-57. im 15. Jahrhundert,"
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All thesedevelopments, the laitywere willingand able to acceptit.14 will bound considered here make were clear, up examples closely with issues of poverty, both withinthe Dominican order and in the order's perceptionof and reactionto lay beguines. Beyond the Dominican order and the events explored here, these developments and drivethereligioushistory ofEurope helped shape thereligiosity in the century beforethe Reformation. Before we come to theseexamplesdirectly, however,in orderto be in a positionto understandthebroaderscope of thesedevelopments and to clarifythe underlyingcircumstances that informedthese boththeattackon beguinesin Basel in theearly1400sand the events, defense of beguines writtenin that same city in the 1430s, some background on the general situationof the beguines in the later Middle Ages is necessary.It has often been noted thatthissituation was frequently, indeed nearlyconstantly, precarious.Ever since bein the and especially first thirteenth guines appeared early century, since the Council of Vienne in the earlyfourteenth, these devout lay women had faced condemnation and persecution both ecclesifrom astical and secularauthorities. The pointI want to stresshereis that, whateverthe explicitnatureof the accusationsand chargesbrought and time,the issue of lay poverty againstbeguines at any particular and the clerical towards these ambivalence mendicancy, profound almostalways lay at the rootof the conflict. practices,
I. BEGUINES AND LAY POVERTY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES
the laterMiddle Ages, thebeguines and theirfarless Throughout the beghards had been a problemfor numerous male counterparts ecclesiastical to orderreligiouslife officials, especiallybishops trying in theirdioceses,and otherclericalauthorities such as canon lawyers and theologians, morebasicallyto definethe character of attempting social groupsand classes. Unable to properreligiouslifefordifferent fitbeguines into any establishedcategory, neitherlay nor religious, neither cloistered nor secular,authorities looked on such people with statusmade themeasy targets for suspicionat best. Theirborderline
14. On JohannesNider's adherence to this position, see JohnDahmus, "Preaching to the Laity in Fifteenth-Century ofEcclesiastical Germany:JohannesNider's 'Harps,' " Journal History34 (1983): 55-68; for Nider and the Dominican JohannesHerolt, see Dahmus, "Late Medieval Preachers and Lay Perfection:The Case of Johannes Herolt, O.P.," Medieval Perspectives 1 (1986): 122-34; most recentlycontrastingthe views of the laity held by the Franciscan Johannesof Werden to Herolt and Nider, see Dahmus, "Dormi secure:The Lazy Preacher's Model of Holiness forhis Flock," in Models ofHolinessin Medieval Sermons,ed. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Textes et etudes du Moyen Age 5 des institutes d'etudes medievales, 1996), (Louvain-la-Neuve: F6derationinternationale 301-16.
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chargesof heresy,and many clericalauthorsbegan to use the term as a synonym forone of the most detestedheresies "beguine"freely of the later Middle Ages, namely the heresy of the Free Spirit.15 Perhaps even more dangerous than charges of heresy,however, of on their whichbeguinescould at leastdeny,were attacks veryform life.Even thoughalmostall beguine communities eventuallyplaced and many ofthemendicant underthesupervision themselves orders, their of orders as communities entered the lay tertiaries, actually clerics were a one. remained profoundly Many perilous position uneasywiththenotionoflay people, especiallylay women,attemptvows of chastity, obedireligiouslifeby following ing to lead a strict and course of ence, poverty. ofbeguinesby clericalauthorities The condemnation began almost but attacksescasuch as soon as the beguines themselves appeared, in thewake of the Council of Vienne,held in 1311 lated significantly and 1312, and with the famous decrees against the beguines that emergedfromthiscouncil (althoughtheywere in factonly finalized XXII in 1317).16 issued severalyearslaterby Pope John and formally from Vienne to the Council of As one scholarhas noted,thecentury Constance(1414-18),markeda "hundredyears'war againstbeghards in Germanand beguines" carried out by the church particularly Cum de quibusAd nostrum and Vienne decrees lands.17 The speaking of the canon law dammulieribus as part Clementines--Clem. (entering thiswar, in which the final 5.3.3 and 3.11.1respectively) precipitated in Basel in the early was the wave of persecution majorengagement whichthe war around the issues and did much to define 1400s, they Ad nostrum described was, ostensibly, beguinesand beghards fought. in termsof an organized heresy,an "abominable sect of certain and certain faithless called beghards, wickedmen,who are commonly The then decree listed who are called women, eighterrors beguines." the ofwhichthesepeople weresupposedlyguilty, essentially defining that clerical authorthe so concerned antinomian of Free Spirit heresy went even further, ities in the laterMiddle Ages. Cum de quibusdam and thebeguine form condemned of heresy, beyondcharges specific
15. The standard study is RobertE. Lerner,The Heresyof theFree Spiritin theLaterMiddle of Notre Dame Press, 1991), esp. 35-60 on Ages,rev. ed. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University (Philadelphia: Repression of Heresyin Medieval Germany beguines. Richard Kieckhefer, of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), 19-51, deals with inquisitorialaction against University beguines. 16. On the historyof the Vienne decrees, and possible variations between the original conciliarand laterpublished versions,see JacquelineTarrant,"The ClementineDecrees 12 (1974): Historiae on the Beguines: Conciliar and Papal Versions," Archivum Pontificae 300-308. 17. Kieckhefer, ofHeresy,19. Repression
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called of lifeper se. The decreedescribed"certain women,commonly and and about debate the highestTrinity preach beguines... [who] to theCatholicfaith the divine essence,and assertopinionscontrary articlesof faithand churchsacraments." Seeing the beconcerning and to to thesouls a threat both themselves as such profound guines then continued,"the status of these of others,Cum de quibusdam ... and completely abolished be forbidden [women]mustperpetually fromGod's church."'18 a wave ofpersecution Ad nostrum and Cumde quibusdam generated directed against beguines, beginning in 1317 in Strassburgeven and spreadbeforethe official publicationof the Clementines slightly to Rhineland other cities,including Basel.19Attackson ing many but in withvarying continued degreesofintensity, beguines Germany In all these outforthe next century.20 with no overall abatement, breaks of persecution, theVienne decreescontinuedto appear in the Yet actual allegaand legal apparatus of the persecutors. intellectual eitherthe heresyof the Free Spiritas outlinedin Ad tionsof heresy, nostrum or the more vague doctrinalerrorsof Cum de quibusdam, among the chargesbroughtagainstberarelyfiguredprominently at the heart of mostof theattacksdirectedagainstthe guines.Rather, authorities ecclesiastical (and often beguinesby by secularauthorities and to lay religiouspoverty as well) lay concernover and objections and at the of these root of the especially practice lay mendicancy, beissues lay ultimately the more basic and longstandingconflict of the and mendicant church. orders tween the secular clergy the
2 vols. iuris inEmilFriedberg, 18. Thetext ofAdnostrum canonici, ed.,Corpus maybe found 2: col.1183-84; undVerlagsanstalt, Graz:Akademische Druck1959), (1879-81;reprint and in ibid.,2: col. 1169.Summaries ofbothin McDonnell, Cumde quibusdam Beguines FreeSpirit, 46-48 and 78-84; and GordonLeff, 523-38;Lerner, ofthe Beghards, Heresy 2 vols. c. 1250-c.1450, toDissent inthe Middle The Relation Later Ages: of Heterodoxy Heresy U.K.: Manchester Press, 1967),1:314-15. (Manchester, University in Strassburg, 19. On the persecutions see Lerner, 85-105,and Heresy oftheFreeSpirit, Deutim 14.Jahrhundert," Alexander Patschovsky, Beginenverfolgungen "StralTburger in 30 (1974):56-198.On other Archiv desMittelalters sches persecutions farErforschung undBegardenwesen: see Eva Gertrude theRhineland, Neumann, Ein Rheinisches Beginenzurmittleren amRhein, Mainzer Mainzer zurreligibisen Abhandlungen Bewegung Beitrag 4 (Meisenheim am Glan:Hain, 1960),150-61.On theperseund neueren Geschichte in Basel Die Beginen in Basel beginning in 1318,see Brigitte cutions Degler-Spengler, Geschichte in Basler undAltertum(Basel:n.p.,1970;originally published Zeitschrift ffir "Le conflict and Clement skunde 69 [1969]: 5-83 and 70 [1970]: Schmitt, 29-118),25-28, avec le clerg' s'culaire a Bale sous l'dvequeGerardde Wippingen des Franciscans Historicum 54 (1961):216-25. Franciscanum Archivum (1318-1324)," 20. For an overview, see Kieckhefer, 22-28.Lerner, oftheFree Heresy Repression ofHeresy, on charges of FreeSpirit 125-63,concentrates against beguinesin this Spirit, heresy period.
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with the inconflict The secular-mendicant originatedpractically in the themselves the mendicant orders of early thirteenth ception care of souls, the and with pastoral preaching century.Charged to a the direct mendicants regular parishclergy competition presented thecoin purses,ofthelaityin fortheheartsand souls,not to mention the the rapidlygrowingurban centersof Europe.21In moral terms, of secular clergyobjected to mendicantsusurping many functions mendicant orders to In terms, bishopsobjected parishpriests. political oftheir control. in their diocese but essentially independent operating In economic terms,objectionswere raised to the very practice of mendicancyso centralto these new orders. In fact,not so much the massive amountof alms theiractivebeggingas through through that these very popular orders began to receive,mendicantswere amountof financial resourcesthatmight drawingaway a significant otherwisehave gone to other areas of the church.Of course, the secular clergycould not object to people giving voluntaryalms to approved religiousorder,nor could theyreallyobjectto mendicant papal sanctionfortheiractions. begging,as the orders had official Insteadit was the "lay religious," beguines and beghardsseekingto and otheraspectsof thevitaapostolica, emulatethevoluntary poverty The beguinesespeciallywere closelyassowho became easy targets. Even above all withtheFranciscans. ciatedwiththemendicant orders, of beguines communities if theydid not formally become tertiaries, oftenplaced themselvesunder the moral supervisionand pastoral care of the mendicantfriars. They may have sometimesengaged in to themselves, althoughthiswas farmoretypicalof begging support of female the itinerant male beghards than of settledcommunities and more established more became houses As beguines. beguine of voluntartheir own share to receive however, theybegan popular, ily given alms. Thus attackson beguines mightraise all the same issues on which secular clerics opposed mendicantprivilegesbut theofficial sanctionsthatthemendicant theneed to confront without ordersenjoyed. As earlyas themid thirteenth beguineshad been attacked century, of St. Amour,the leader of in Paris William forillicit by mendicancy as a partofhis overallopposition thesecularclericsat theuniversity,
see C. H. Lawrence, TheFriars:The 21. For an overview of the general course of thisconflict, on Western Society(London: Longman, 1994), Impactof the Early MendicantMovement 152-65; R. N. Swanson, "The 'Mendicant Problem' in the Later Middle Ages," in The and theReligious MedievalChurch: Universities, Leff, Life, Essaysin HonourofGordon Heresy, ed. PeterBillerand BarrieDobson, Studies in Church History,Subsidia 11 (Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell, 1999), 217-38.
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in the Rhineland to the mendicant orders.22 Most of thepersecutions to the initial back even the fourteenth century, going throughout outbreak sparked by the Vienne decrees in 1317, were clearly if And the intense conflict.23 motivatedby secular-mendicant covertly to in in the fifteenth Basel too, century, originated early persecutions in in tensions betweenthesecularand mendicant a largeextent clergy friars of the Franciscanorder. thatcity,especiallythe mendicant
II. THE BASLER BEGINENSTREIT
The campaign against the beguines in Basel pittedthe beguines, and the Franciscans themselves against the Franciscan tertiaries, ofBasel, and theDominicansof thecityled bishop,thesecularclergy by Johannes Mulberg.The crisisseems to have been brewingsincethe when the FranciscanRudolf century, verybeginningof the fifteenth Positio Buchsmannissued his brief Outbeguinarum.25 prodefensione eruptedwhen, on June25, 1405,Mulberg delivereda rightconflict as leadall beguines,including Franciscan sermonattacking tertiaries, of that the In oflife.26 Augustof year, bishop Basel, ing an illicitform Humbertof Neuchatel,ordered an inquisitionagainst the local beIn Octoberhe excommunicated them,and they guines and tertiaries. at thisattack incensed The Franciscans, were orderedout ofthecity.27
22. Grundmann, Religious Movements,141; McDonnell, Beguinesand Beghards,456-58; Jean-Claude Schmitt,Mort d'une hcrdsie: L'Eglise et les clercsface aux beguineset aux du XIVe et XVe siecle,Civilisations et soci6tes 56 (Paris: bighardsdu Rhin supfrieur Mouton, 1978), 56-57. 23. The centralargumentof Patschovsky,"StratburgerBeginenverfolgungen." 24. Degler-Spengler, Beginen in Basel, 33; Schmitt,Mort d'une heresie,128-29; Brigitte in Basel, 1400-1411: Neue Forschungsergebnisse Degler-Spengler,"Die Beginenstreit ed. nellasocietda dellapenitenza und weitereFragen,"in Ii movimento medioevale, francescano Mariano D'Alatri (Rome: Istitutostoricodei Cappuccini, 1980),95-105, at 101; Bernhard zum und stdidtischer zwischenOrdensideal Untersuchungen Neidiger, Mendikanten Realitdit: Studien 5, Ordensin Basel,Berliner historischen Verhalten derBettelorden wirtschaftlichen studien 3 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1981), 126-32; Alexander Patschovsky, Das Beispiel des Basler "Beginen, Begarden und Terziaren im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert: zum 65. Geburtstag, (1400/04-1411)," in Festschrift fiirEduardHlawitschka Beginenstreits ed. Karl Rudolf Schnithand Roland Pauler, Miinchnerhistorischen Studien, Abteilung Geschichte 5 (Kallmiinz: Lassleben, 1993), 403-18, at 408; Heusinger, mittelalterliche 50-51. Johannes Mulberg, 25. Basel, Offentliche Bibliothekder Universitdit, MS A IX 21, fol.91r-v. The edition of the tract in Schmitt,Mort d'une h&rdsie, 205-7, is unreliable. A superior edition is now available in Heusinger, JohannesMulberg, 131-32. On dating of the work, see Patschovsky, "Beginen, Begarden und Terziaren," 404, and Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg,47-49. I cite here fromthe recent contrabeguinas et beghardos. 26. Preserved in Mulberg's Tractatus edition in Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg,133-73, which is based on Basel, Offentiliche Bibliothekder Universittit, MS A IX 21, fols. 91v-109v. 27. Degler-Spengler,Beginenin Basel, 33-34; Patschovsky,"Beginen, Begarden und Terzi52-55 and 58-59. aren," 412; Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg,
467
and third on their order, appealed quicklyto theBishopofConstance, Odo ofColonna.Boththe oftheir thento theCardinal-Protector order, demandingthatall action bishop and the cardinalissued statements the be the tertiaries halted; bishop summoned Mulberg to against ordered the Dominicanto Rome and the cardinal before him, appear was suspended.28 The seven houses while actionagainstthetertiaries of beguines in Basel associated with the Dominican order,the one unaffiliated house of entirely beguines,and the one or two houses of to come to theiraid, and in had defenders no such the city beghards in late 1405 theywere drivenfromBasel neverto return.29 Meanwhile,from1406 until1411,the case of the Franciscantertiariesdraggedon beforethepapal curiain Rome. By 1409,thetertiaries seized. Then,on too had been drivenfromBasel and theirproperty Alexander Pisa elected the Council of V, a Franciscan, June26, 1409, to thepapacy. In shortorder,theFriarsMinorwere able to call their ofMay back to Basel. Alexander, tertiaries however,died on thethird had taken thatfollowingyear. In addition,a new citygovernment cause than the controlin Basel and was more hostileto the tertiary In and the 1410 had been. town council 1411, antitertiary previous theBishopofBasel and grouppresseditsadvantage.Actingtogether, and seized tertiaries thenew towncouncilbanishedall theremaining final At the conflict and the time. this for their point, again property with of the the ended opponentsof the completevictory essentially individual a few Several later, beguines began to years beguines. in in formed but never again largecommunities they reappear Basel, the city.30 all of thisstrife, chargesof heresyleveled against the Throughout centered a role. The real focusof conflict small beguinesplayed only on issues of lay povertyand mendicancy.The FranciscanRudolf not about in his initialdefenseof beguines,had written Buchsmann, was an and how but about mendicancy evangelicalpoverty heresy, Likewise of and laudable form life.31 JohannesMulberg approved attacked beguineson theissue of what he perceivedto be theirillicit that only the mendicantorders mendicancy.He believed strongly
28. Bishop Marquard of Constance's summons of August 1, 1405, is found in Basel, MS E I 1k, fols. 486r-488v, while his decision of Bibliothekder Universitit, Offentliche is found in ibid., fols. 380v-389r. A brief November 28, 1405 protectingthe tertiaries version of Odo of Colonna's letter,dated November 10, 1405, is found in Basel, MS E I li, fol.29v. Full versions are in ibid., fols. Bibliothekder Universitit, Offentliche 105v-108v,and Basel, MS E I 1k, fols.480r-484r. houses of in Basel,37-38. A detailed account of all twenty-two 29. Degler-Spengler, Beginen lay religious in Basel is found in ibid., 92-108. 30. Degler-Spengler, Beginenin Basel,36-39. 31. Buchsman,Positio(Heusinger,Johannes Mulberg,131).
468
CHURCH HISTORY
begging.32 "It is entirelyillicit," he wrote, "for [other] clerics, just as
were allowed to live fromalms and to supportthemselves through
and "to live from forhealthy lay people, to lead a lifeofmendicancy," that to is for other illicit is clerics, say otherthanthe begging entirely such people mendicant Rather, orders,and forhealthy lay people."33 were required to support themselvesfromthe productivelabor of their own hands. Mulberg's treatiseagainst the beguines, based mainlyon his sermonsagainst themin Basel, is largelydevoted to examples and citationssupportingthis general opposition to lay mendicancy.Only afterhe had finishedattackingthe mendicant practicesof the beguines did he resortto charges of heresy.Here, but errors however,he did not accuse the Basel beguinesof specific beof condemnations manner earlier in a rehearsed general only of the a decision and de Ad nostrum Cum such as quibusdam, guines, Mainz episcopal synod in 1318,and therulingsof severalbishops in The only contemStrassburg against the beguines in theirterritory. for actions his that obtained against the Mulberg porary support of of the a the from decision University faculty theological beguines, with dealt mendicancy.34 exclusively Heidelberg, There were real, if hidden,economic,political,and social reasons and (to say nothingof genderedreasons) thatthe town government to the in be hostile Basel the secular beguines. might clergy especially at themendicant as a means ofstriking Theyattackedthemprimarily to whom manybeguine communiorders,above all the Franciscans, ties were closely attached. For the Dominican JohannesMulberg,
ifever,seem to have activelybegged. The 32. As mentionedabove, femalebeguines rarely, most thorough study of beguine formsof life and activities,focusing on the region around Lake Constance just to the east of Basel, is Andreas Wilts, Beginenim Bodenseeraum(Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1994). Attacks on "lay mendicancy" were perhaps made because active lay beggingwas more easily condemned thanthepassive reception of of alms, or perhaps to link such attackson beguines more emphaticallyto criticism the mendicant orders. As will be seen below, the later Dominican author Johannes Nider, in his defense of lay poverty,was carefulto separate the issue of alms fromthat of full mendicancy (see below, esp. n. 82). uiuere sit altario seruientibusdebitum, nec non aliena 33. "Licet de patrimonio crucifixi stipe sustentari,ordinibus mendicantibus sit a iure concessum, mendicitatetamen se illicitum,"and "de mendicitransigereest tam clericiquam laycis ualidis uniuersaliter tate uiuere sit aliis clericis, aliis scilicet a mendicantibus ordinibus et laycis ualidis uniuersaliterillicitum." Mulberg, Contra beguinas(Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg,141, 142). 34. Mulberg, Contrabeguinas(Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg,161-66). The decision of the Mainz council to which Mulberg refersis found in Joannes Dominicus Mansi, ed. Graz: 53 vols. (1758-98, 1901-27; reprint novaetamplissima conciliorum Sacrorum collectio, Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt, 1960-61), 25: cols. 635-38. Editionsof material related to beguines in Strassburgare found in Patschovsky,"Stra8burgerBeginenverMulberg, folgungen,"126-98. On the decision fromHeidelberg,see Heusinger,Johannes 56-58.
469
in such action was farmore to participate however,the motivation "idealized." His order, too, had several communitiesof beguines from underitscare,and thesewould,and did, suffer anyattackon the status of lay poverty.Moreover,any assault on the moral and relithe position of the gious value of mendicancymightalso threaten not just the beguines. Yet this was mendicantorders themselves, thepointon whichMulbergpressedhis attack.For him,the precisely of the beguines was itselfa serious threat. and mendicancy poverty in thismatter has to do withhis deep The reason forhis conviction in as informed to religiouspoverty commitment by his involvement withinhis own order.In orderto understand movement the reform considertheoriginsoftheDominican we musttherefore his position, and its earlypositionon poverty. movement observant
III.
EARLY DOMINICAN REFORM AND POVERTY
the Dominicanorderhad Founded in the earlythirteenth century, lost much of its initialdisciplinein termsof by the earlyfourteenth povertyand otheraspects of religiouslife. Toward the end of the forreform a coherent movement fourteenth emergedwithin century, of plague and papal Shakenby thehorrors theOrderof Preachers.35 lax adherenceto theruleand to theincreasingly and objecting schism, of the ordermaintainedin most convents, initialconstitutions many observanceof the founded in a strict Dominicanswanted a reform of of theearlydocuments, and a strict interpretation earlyprinciples, in Vienna in 1388,Konrad their order.At thegeneralchapter meeting of Prussia, a friarfromCologne, proposed to his master general, RaymondofCapua, thateveryprovinceoftheordershould maintain was observance.Konradhimself at leastone house dedicatedto strict such conventat Colmar in 1389.36 Among appointedpriorof thefirst his earlydisciplestherewas Johannes Mulberg.For thesemen,povand theyadopted a severe ertywas an issue of centralimportance,
35. Lawrence, The Friars,222-23. For the reformmovement in German lands, see the excellentsurveysby Eugen Hillenbrand,"Die Observantenbewegungin der deutschen und Observanzbestrebungen, Ordensprovinz der Dominikaner," in Reformbemiihungen 219-71; BernhardNeidiger, "Die Observanzbewegungen der Bettelordenim Stidwest11 (1992): 175-96; and deutschland," Rottenburger Jahrbuch fiir Kirchengeschichte Mulberg,11-38. Older but still essential is Gabriel M. Lbhr, Die Heusinger, Johannes ihrerReform, zur Geschichte Studienund Textevornehmlich Teutoniaim 15. Jahrhundert: Quellen und Forschungenzur Geschichtedes Dominikanerordensin Deutschland 19 (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1924). An importantnew study on the issues of propertyand wealth in several religiousordersis JamesD. Mixson, "ProfessedProprietors: Religion, of Notre and the Origins of the ObservantMovement" (Ph.D. diss., University Property Dame, 2002). 36. Hillenbrand,"Observantenbewegung,"226-27.
470
CHURCHHISTORY
To some bothindividualand communalpoverty.37 position,stressing in as a moral to have seem extent, good and of regardedpoverty they as a Franciscan almost more of itself, approach opposed to thetradiand mendicancy were simply thatpoverty tionalDominican attitude and more effective an means to end,namely contemplative preaching and perhaps more morally farmore stringent This attitude, activity. problems pure thanthatheld by theorderas a whole,caused certain in not the least of which was added difficulty for the reformers, reform. the spreading Consider the factthatin 1395,Johannes Mulbergwas dispatched His in Wiirzburg. theDominicanmale convent Colmarto reform from driven he was with and met intense resistance, ultimately attempts in defeatto Colmar.38We know to return theconventand forced from in Wiirzburg, to reform littleabout the exactnatureof the resistance observanceto to spread strict but anotherearly,and failed,attempt in Nuremberg thefemaleDominicanconvent helps to shed somelight on the key issues involved.In 1396 Mulbergand Konrad of Prussia the men's house in thatcity,and in late had successfully reformed 1397,mastergeneralRaymondof Capua appointedKonrad as vicar over the women's conventof St. Catherine.Clearly,Konrad began to institute changes. A year later,however,on December 8, trying 1398, Raymond was forcedto issue a statement guaranteeingthe sistersof St. Catherine'stheirold observanceand pledging thatno reform would be made to introduce further against the sisattempt he specifically ters'own wishes. Tellingly, guaranteedthatthepropwithoutthe sisters'conbe alienated of the would never house erty and povertydemands of the property sent.39Clearly the stricter role in rousingopposition,both had played a significant reformers withinthe conventand probablyin the town as well. Wealthyconand forthe excess daughtersof the aristocracy vents,as repositories of powerfulpolitical urban merchant classes, enjoyed the protection
leader in Italy,Giovanni Domi37. A position shared by the principal Dominican reform nici. On the early observant position on poverty,see Bernhard Neidiger, "Der Armutsbegriffder Dominikanerobservanten:Zur Diskussion in den Konventen der 145 (1997): des Oberrheins Provinz Teutonia (1389-1513)," Zeitschrift fiir die Geschichte des Die Reform des Predigerordens: zur Geschichte 117-58, at 120-23; Franz Egger, Beitrdge des Ordensam BaslerKonzil 1431-1448 (Bern: Peter 1429 und die Stellung BaslerKonvents 33. Mulberg, Lang, 1991), 82-83; and Heusinger, Johannes 25-26. 38. Hillenbrand, "Observantenbewegung,"230; Heusinger,Johannes Mulberg, de VineisCapuani,magistri litterarum 39. Thomas Kaeppeli, ed., Registrum Raymundi fratris ordinis1380-1399, Monumenta Ordinis FratrumPraedicatorum Historica 19 (Rome: InstitutumhistoricumFratrumPraedicatorum,1937), 160.
RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY, AND REFORM
471
to patronswho would have been deeply concernedabout attempts nuns.4 the on strict poverty impose Yet, despite whateversetbacksor conflicts mightarise, the early leaders of the Dominican reform, includingMulberg,continuedto a more to commitment to their completeand genuinepoverty. cling I am convinced, This commitment, played no small partin Mulberg's in theactionsagainstthebeguinesin Basel. In a detailed involvement ordersin Basel, ofthemendicant oftheeconomicaffairs investigation limited how more the has revealed Bernhard Franciscans, by Neidiger theirclaims of absolute povertythan eitherthe Dominicans or AugustinianHermitswere by theirmore moderate approaches,often financial to facilitate tertiaries used their dealings,having themhold thatthe Franciscansthemselvescould not posor conveyproperty sess.41 He thensuggeststhatthe othermendicantordersin the city, especially the Dominicans, resented this stratagem,and that this at best, with which they resentment helps explain the indifference, ofwhom, the the to attacks greatmajority beguines, upon responded tertiaries.42 were Franciscan after all, in termsof tertiain directing theseattacks.Specifically instrumental third order Franciscan of the that members he ries, argued repeatedly but remainedsimple laity,and therefore were not religiousclergy, they were not allowed to beg or receive alms when healthy,but needed to engage in productivelabor.43In fact,a contemporary, biased,accountofthecampaignagainstthebeguines clearly although but thathe thatMulbergnotonlyattackedtertiaries, in Basel reported for even called for all Franciscansin Basel to be excommunicated that on to then went This account third order. their allege protecting lived Mulberghad claimed thatthe rule under which the tertiaries
40. When St. Catherine's was successfullyreformedthirty years later by JohannesNider, the observantsagain faced resistancefromthe Nurembergtown council; Theodore von im Jahre1428," Jahrbuch zu Nfirnberg des Katharinenklosters Kern, "Die Reformation 31 (1863): 1-20, esp. 3-6. The following year, Vereinsim Mittelfranken des historischen thewealthyfemale theDominican priorythere, when Nider came to Basel and reformed thanksin part to the sisters'powerful resistedreform, house of Klingentalsuccessfully relations on the Basel town council. See Hillenbrand, "Observantenbewegung," 236; Basler Beiund ihrPersonenkreis, des Klosters Die Reform Renee Weis-Mtiller, Klingental 59 (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn,1956), 15-16. zur Geschichtswissenschaft trdige und Eigentum41. Neidiger,Mendikanten, 99-126; see also Neidiger, "Liegenschaftsbesitz srechteder Basler Bettelordenskonvente: Beobachtung zur Mendikantenarmutim 14. in der stiidtischen der Bettelorden in Stellung und Wirksamkeit und 15. Jahrhundert," ed. Kaspar Elm, BerlinerhistorischenStudien 3, Ordensstudien 2 (Berlin: Gesellschaft, Duncker & Humblot, 1981), 103-17, esp. 115. 128-30. 42. Neidiger,Mendikanten, 43. Mulberg, Contrabeguinas(Heusinger,Johannes Mulberg,168-72).
Mulberg, of course, went far beyond mere indifference.He was
472
CHURCH HISTORY
such a document, thatSaintFrancishad neverwritten was a forgery, and that the whole thingwas a deception of the later Franciscan almostcertainly have no whileinteresting, Such wild charges, order.44 basis in fact, however,and thereseems no cause to doubt the many as well as by othersin his made by Mulberg himself, statements defense,thathe was not opposed to the thirdrule or to thestatusof were abuses beingcarried thetertiaries per se but onlyto whathe felt and other tertiaries on theFranciscan out underthatrule.45 His attacks and his conin his reform commitment to were beguines grounded were the abuses to victions as a reformer."But what specifically which Mulberg so strongly objected?Here Neidiger's observations forwhichtheFranciscans The economicmachinations become critical. in Basel were using their held to be unseemly tertiaries, by the clearly like other two mendicant orders, would have strucka reformer man to a Here was committed as abhorrent. instilling Mulberg totally a greatercommitment to povertywithinhis own order.While not theearlyobseradvocatinga completedispossessionof all property, toward a valorization inclined vant Dominicanswere,I think, clearly of povertyin and of itselfthatwas in many ways closer to a Franofpovciscan approach thanthestandardDominicanunderstanding In and his a means toward some end. as Basel, Mulberg given erty orderthat would have come faceto facewitha Franciscan convictions to theverytenets ofabsolutepoverty used its tertiaries to circumvent which he was drawn. For this reason, he willinglythrewhimself overthebeguines,whichhad been brewing headlong intotheconflict ofthe he arrivedin Basel,on theside ofthesecularclergy sincebefore and his mendicants. fellow city against includto manyinnocents, That thisconflict caused muchsuffering but Franciscans in not to the houses attached the ing manybeguines to his own Dominican order,doubtless caused him no pause. His and particularly the ideals of commitment to the ideals of reform,
et conventus 44. Jacobus de Subiago de Mediolano, Relatiodefactisin causa lohannis Mulberg Bibliothek Predicatorum in Basilea contra Basel, Offentliche OFM superbeghinis, fratrem der Universittit, MS E I li, fols. 458r-469r,at fols. 458r and 459v-460r. MS E I li, which contains a miscellanyof 45. Basel, Offentliche Bibliothekder Universitdit, documents relating to the campaign against the beguines, yields several documents favorableto Mulberg statingthathe directedhis actions only against abuses and errors, and "non contraterciamregulam" (fol.7v), and thathe did not oppose thethirdrule "in se, nec modus vivendi eiusdem" (fol. 8v). Mulberg himself,in an appeal of his case to Rome on August 8, 1405, maintained that he did not intend to attack the Franciscan order or even theirtertiaries per se, but only "ritumtamen beghinatus,beghardorum, [et] lolhardorum ab ecclesia sancta reprobatum": Basel, OffentlicheBibliothek der MS E I 1k, fol. 491r. Universitait, 46. Schmitt,Mort d'une herbsie, 155-58; Degler-Spengler, "Beginenstreitin Basel," 101; 46. Mulberg, Patschovsky,"Beginen,Begarden und Terziaren,"407; Heusigner,Johannes
RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY, AND REFORM
473
ofthebeguinesas and mendicancy caused himto look on thepoverty to thestrict in theproperreligiousorderand as a threat a deformation Even ordersthemselves. withinthemendicant observanceofpoverty in Basel had ended and all beguineshad been driven theconflict after fromthe city,the irascible Mulberg continued to decry formsof the world. Upon that he saw as corrupting economic immorality a fiery series of in he delivered from Rome to Basel 1411, returning the from he was exiled sermonsattacking thereafter, Shortly usury.47 to the Roman of his adherence on account pope city,technically XII duringthecomplexreligiouspoliticsoftheGreatSchism, Gregory and moral but moreso, it seems,because his tempestuous personality zeal had alienated him even fromthe other membersof his own to very order.48 Mulberg's completeand unwaveringcommitment the of the zeal thatcharacterized strict moralpositionsis illustrative on as instructive as well the of Dominican reform, being earlyphase lack ofmajorsuccess.If the some ofthereasonsfortheearlyreform's withintheOrderof was to surviveand flourish movement observant find a to it have to would Preachers, way tempersome of its more elements. extreme
IV. LATER DOMINICAN REFORM AND POVERTY
poverty as set forth by his friend and master Konrad of Prussia,
During the years in which Mulbergwas involved in the struggle against the beguines in Basel, the Dominican observantmovement hard times.The problemsreallybegan in 1399 with was undergoing thedeathofthemaster generalRaymondofCapua, who had initiated The next ofhis office.49 and backed itwithall theauthority thereform mastergeneralwas Thomas of Firmo,who beforehis electionhad Therehe had witnessedseveralhouses ofLombardy. been provincial and intothe hands of GiovanniDominici,the pass out of his control Thus he was not particuconventsin Italy.50 vicar over all observant
Theorie "Kirchliche 47. See Heusinger, Gilomen, 73-76,and Hans-Jorg Johannes Mulberg, des Johannes DerStreit undWirtschaftspraxis: umdie Basler Mulberg," Wucherpredigt dieAufgabe derHelvetia Geschichte inderSchweiz, undallgemeine Itinera: Kirchengeschichte Sacra4 (1986):34-62. 78-79. 48. Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg, 1. 49. Lihr,Teutonia, and A. in Italycan be foundin R. Creytens reform of theDominican 50. An overview de Lombardie Dominicaine de la congregation "Les actescapitulaires d'Amato, (148231 (1961):213-306, here214-29.On Dominici's Fratrum Praedicatorum Archivum 1531)," de la congregation see Raymond "Les vicaires as vicar, generaux Creytens, appointment 32 (1962): Fratrum Praedicatorum Archivum de Lombardie Dominicaine (1459-1531)," created ofvicarwas a specialposition 211-84,at 216.Theoffice by themaster general of a vicar to him.Houses underthesupervision and answerable oftheorder directly
474
CHURCHHISTORY
and withoutsupportfromthe larlyinclinedto favorthe reformers, a virtualstandstill. to came the movement levels, Only in highest 1414, when Leonard Dati became mastergeneral,did the situation he was at least himself, begin to improve.Althoughnot an observant In 1419 the movementexpanded for not openly hostileto reform.51 were from timein over two decades when friars the first Nuremberg the male conventin Bern,and sistersfromSchinenable to reform in Colmar.52 the femaleconventof Unterlinden steinbachreformed The revival was completein 1426 with the electionof Barthelemy Texier as mastergeneral. Like Raymond of Capua beforehim, he believed in the value of strictobservance,and he put the firmly once again.53 of his office behind the reform authority in The movementas it reemergedin the 1420s,however,differed of reform. from the first some subtlebut important generation ways The situation behindTexier'selectionas mastergeneralis instructive. canhe was actuallya compromise of reform, Althougha supporter didate whose electionwas intendedto preventthe orderfromfracturinginto deeply opposed observantand conventual (or nonreof branches.4 FollowingTexier'slead, thesecond generation formed) first to than the more Dominican reformers temper willing proved their strictmoral positions and to accept certaincompromisesin whereas the first of poverty, return forpracticalgains. In the matter an strict had advocated approach in termsof extremely generation both individual and communal poverty,Texier moved the reform continuDominicaninterpretation, back towardsthemoretraditional but far more individual need absolute to for stress the poverty, ing a certainamount In fact, relaxedon theissue of communalproperty. and necessary of communalwealth was now regardedas beneficial oftheobserThe forsupporting properreligiouslife.55" leadingfigure
were effectively removed from the control of the provincial. The officethus roused much opposition. In 1391 the chapter general had sought to eliminate all observant vicars, but Raymond of Capua had resisted. See Raymond of Capua, Opuscula litterae (Rome, 1895), 122; also Creytensand d'Amato, "Les actes capitulaires,"216-17. Thereafterin 1397, 1405, 1410, 1421, 1426, and 1428, chapters general continued to seek to Ordinis abolish theoffice. See BenedictusMaria Reichert, ed., Actacapitulorum generalium ab anno 1380 usque ad annum 1498, Monumenta Ordinis FratrumPraediPraedicatorum historicumFratrumPraedicatorum,1900), 100, catorum Historica 8 (Rome: Institutum 128, 140, 168, 198, and 207. des Predigerordens, 83. zur Geschichte Egger, Beitriige Hillenbrand, "Observantenbewegung,"232. 8 Generaux de l'Ordredes Frbres Daniel Antonin Mortier,Histoiredes Maftres Procheurs, vols. (Paris: Picard, 1903-20), 4:145. 4:142-43. des MattresGeneraux, Mortier,Histoire communal poverty 128-29. In factstrict 4-5; Neidiger, "Armutsbegriff," L6hr, Teutonia, had already ceased to be an issue by 1419 with the reformof the Bern convent; see 33. Mulberg, Heusinger, Johannes
51. 52. 53. 54. 55.
475
vant movementin Germanyat this time,the theologianJohannes several houses, Nider, who worked closely with Texier to reform this on with his master approach.He noted, general certainly agreed thatwhen introducing forexample,in a generalhandbookon reform, should take care not to strictobservance to a convent,reformers and to continue to providefor activities too economic disrupt severely or sisters,as these measures all the worldlyneeds of the brothers would help suppress any dissent.56 his position on Nider's position on povertyalso deeply affected in to Mulberg contrast and other him, allowing lay religious, beguines traditional Dominican the more reassert to a generation earlier, supportforbeguinesand to mounta defenseof lay povertyand mendiThe setting forthisdefensewas again the cityof cancyin general.57 thatMulberg after the wave of persecution some Basel, twenty years was thesetting therehad subsided.More particularly, had instigated 1431 thegreatecumenicalCouncilofBasel,whichmetin thecityfrom until 1449, and of which Nider was a leading member from its untillate 1434or early1435,when he departedto takeup a inception the theologicalfacultyof the Universityof Vienna.58 on position were again under attackin Basel duringthe earlyyears of Beguines thecouncil.Given thattherewere almostno beguinesin thecityany these attackswere more no large communities, more,and certainly withinthe than earlier. theoretical Theyoccurred twenty years purely over reform debates context of taking place at religious general larger issues involved, thecouncil.The central however,remainedthesame, and mendicancy. value oflay poverty on themuchcontested focusing in Basel written In 1433,forexample,an anonymoustracton reform includedamong its manypointsa call forall "lollardsand beguines" theirown alms and to supportthemselves to stop receiving through In 1435,the Spanish clericAndreas of Escobar,in his recomlabor.59
Bibliothekder statuscenobitici 56. JohannesNider, De reformatione 2.12, Basel, Offentliche MS B III 15, fols. 186v-248v,at fol. 220v. For briefoverviews of this work, Universitait, see Hillenbrand,"Observantenbewegung," 222-24, or Kaspar Schieler,Magister Johannes Nider aus dem Orden der Prediger-Briider (Mainz: Kirchheim,1885), 397-401. A more and Nider's reform extended analysis of the treatise, thoughtin general,may be found in Bailey, Battling Demons,75-89. in Patschovsky,"Beginen,Begarden und Terziaren,"408. 57. As noted briefly 58. The most complete overview of the council is JohannesHelmrath,Das Basler Konzil: und Probleme Forschungsstand (Cologne: Bohlau, 1987). For more detail on the DominiOn zur Geschichte des Predigerordens. cans in Basel, including Nider, see Egger, Beitriige Nider as a professorin Vienna, see Isnard Wilhelm Frank,Hausstudiumund UniversiGeschichte 127 Dominikaner bis 1500, Archiv fiirosterreichische der Wiener tiitsstudium desJohannes Nider,71-74. (Vienna: Bohlau, 1968),214-16, and Tschacher,Der Formicarius Basiliense: Studienund Quellenzur Geschichte 59. JohannesHaller and others,eds., Concilium Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1971), 8:109. des Concilsvon Basel,8 vols. (1896-1936; reprint
476
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mendationsforreforms presentedto the council,called fora ban on entitled TheReforwhile the anonymoustreatise beguines altogether, mation in that Kaiser written demanded 1439, of Sigismund, beguines In addition, the stop begging and work to support themselves.60 in 1438by thewell-known written treatise Contra validos mendicantes, of Felix circulated Hemmerlin, widely in Basel.61 opponent beguines at thecouncilthat For his part,Johannes Nider wrotetwo treatises touched upon the status of the beguines and the validity of lay secuand De paupertate perfecta religionibus poverty,De secularium larium. Both existonly in manuscript copies, althoughespeciallyfor in a not inconsiderable the more general De secularium religionibus For attention.62 number,and bothhave receivedonly scantscholarly De and the earlier more focused here, paupertate perfecta my purpose secularium is of greater interest. Nider wrotethistreatise probablyin was 1433or early1434,just as discussionofbeguinesand lay poverty know that an We to become at the Council of issue beginning Basel.63 treatiseswere often writtento affectdebates taking place at the whichcarriesno dedicationor otherclear council,and De paupertate, As mentioned statement of purpose, was doubtless one of these.64 earlier, Nider had known JohannesMulberg personallyand had to him.He respectedthe older man, who served as a mentor greatly thanMulberg was also no less committed to the principles of reform of had been. However,Nider was a member ofthesecond generation and thus his conceptof povertywas ratherless Dominican reform,
Kaiser Heinrich 60. Haller,Concilium 1:227-28; Koller, ed.,Reformation Basiliense, Siegmunds, Mittelalters 6 (Stuttgart: Staatschriften des spiteren Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 216 and 218. Hiersemann, 1964), FreeSpirit, 172. 61. Lemer, ofthe Heresy 62. On De secularium see Van Engen,"Friar Johannes Nyder."On bothDe religionibus, and De paupertate see Bailey, secularium Demons, secularium, Battling perfecta religionibus 64-73. For manuscript see ThomasKaeppeli,ed., Scriptores copies of bothtreatises, 2:511-12. Ordinis Praedicatorum medii aevi,4 vols. (Rome:ad Santa Sabina,1970-93), in Munich, secularium are found Additional Bayerische perfecta copiesof De paupertate Nationaland Nuremberg, Germanisches fols. Staatsbibliothek, Clm.18195, 243r-259v, Hs. 101221,fol.266v(excerpt). Additional museum, religionibus copiesofDe secularium 1 and from in Emmerich, MS 13,fols. are found 20r-23v Stadtarchiv, (excerpts chapters von Speyer, Cod. mell.1833,fols.161r-167r 4), and Melk,Stiftsbibliothek, (Johannes Niderde eremetis et anachoretis ex tractatu loannis = De secularium, Excerpta magistri on thecopiesinBasel,Offentliche der Bibliothek 11 and 12).HereI haverelied chapters MS B III 15,fols.1r-54r. Universitat, 152. 63. On dating, see Bailey, Demons, Battling als Forum deroffentliat Basel,see Jtirgen "Die Konzilien 64. On use oftreatises Miethke, desMittelalters 37 im 15.Jahrhundert," Archiv chenMeinung Deutsches farErforschung to secularium was similar In thissense,De paupertate (1981):736-73, perfecta esp. 753-55. thissame time;see MichaelD. another treatise producedby Niderat approximately Nider'sDe abstinencia and Reform "Abstinence at theCouncilofBasel:Johannes Bailey, esuscarnium," Mediaeval Studies 59 (1997):225-60,at 235.
477
thanthatheld by Mulberg.The veryissue thathad doubtlessso strict were being used by rankled Mulberg,thatbeguines and tertiaries not the individualbut the communal friars mendicant to circumvent to whichtheywere dedicated,would have been a nonstarter poverty to forNider. He did not share the older generation'scommitment strict communalin addition to individual privation, nor, I suspect, did he valorize alreadyin thisthinking, havingmade thiscompromise In while did. in as much as short, they poverty, poverty generalquite forhim,and was notquiteas critical to a truereligious stillcritical life, were to shirkpoverty thatmight be seen as attempts so machinations issues. not quite such red-flag The factis thatNider did notturnon thebeguinesat theCouncil of Basel, as Mulberghad done several decades earlier.Instead,he supin thestrongest and lay mendicancy portedthebeguines,lay poverty, and mostcompletetermspossible. During the earlierwave of persecution directedby Mulberg,supportersof the beguine cause had Inifocused almost exclusivelyon the case of Franciscantertiaries. in of all had defense Rudolf Buchsmann the Franciscan preached tially "lollards,beghards,and beguines,both withinand outside of the As theconflict third orderofSaintFrancis."65 escalated,however,the at to its own tertiaries, orderquicklynarrowedits efforts Franciscan the expense of otherbeguines.Almost everylater documentin debetween the was carefulto draw a distinction fenseof the tertiaries and the third order (and papally sanctioned) illegitimate legitimate beguines "condemned by the law."66 A decision had clearlybeen made thatany generalsupportof all beguinesmightprove too costly alone mightbe more successfully while the tertiaries or difficult, as and this obviouslyworked,at leasttemporarily, strategy protected, the actions to their were forced and his allies suspend against Mulberg Writbutwere allowed to continue tertiaries beguines.67 againstother make Nider refused to at of the Council Basel, however, any such ing in which he in his De secularium religionibus, particularly compromise, and then very deliberatelyexdefended firstFranciscantertiaries
65. "pro defensioneLolhardorum,Beghardorumsiue Beginarum,tam in reguliterciasancti Francisci quam extra existencium."Buchsmann,Positio (Heusinger, Johannes Mulberg, 132). 66. A phrase used in various documents collected in Basel, OffentlicheBibliothek der Universitit,MS E I li, fols. 19v-20r,21v-22r, 23r-v, and 25r. The distinctionis also the treatisestrongly drawn sharplythroughout opposing Mulberg's actions by Jacobus de Mediolano, Relatiodefactisin causa lohannisMulberg. 67. As per the decisions by Cardinal Odo Colonna (Basel, OffentlicheBibliothek der Univeritit,MS I li, fol. 29v and 107r,or MS I 1k, fol. 482r) and Bishop Marquard of MS E I 1k, fol. 381r). Bibliothekder Universitait, Constance (Basel, Offentliche
478
CHURCHHISTORY
An important tendedthisdefenseto all otherbeguinesas well.68 part and of his basis for this broad support lay in his understanding be can best and of approached throughhis lay poverty approval De paupertate earliertreatise secularium.69 perfecta severaltypes Nider identified At theoutsetofDe paupertate perfecta, interested of poverty, him,namelyevanonly one of which actually of privation temporalgoods to follow gelical poverty-the voluntary That this formof life was both licit and the example of Christ.70 laudable should have been clear to all, he maintained, yetstillmany and not insistedthatonly clerics, authorities lay people, should be in withChrist's to accordance themselves poverty allowed to commit Nider a order of as a member commands.Although himself, religious order a within of those that"thepoverty religious living obviouslyfelt individual of that sort in than of is more perfect, and of itself.., any person living outside orders or outside a religiouscommunity,'71 he maintainedthatdevout lay people could stilllicitly nevertheless and usefullytake on an essentially religiousvow of poverty.72 threeformsof alNider identified Drawing on Thomas Aquinas, for lowable communalpovertyappropriate lay people as well as for in commonand to supportthe thereligious:to hold certain properties to thoseproperties, supportthecommunity from through community and to receivesupportfrom themanual labor of itsmembers, charity in terms oftheattacks and alms.73 This lastpointwas themostcritical focused being made againstthebeguinesat thetime,whichtypically and alms but their on not on theirpoverty (supposreceiving per se, edly) engaging in mendicancywithoutlaboring to support themon a moralissue focusing thiswas essentially selves. For churchmen,
3 of De secularium 68. In chapter (fols.4v-5v),Nider "solvitdubiumutrum religionibus fratres et sororesde terciaregulasanctiFrancisci per ea que contra condempnetur 4 (fols. etponit fulminata etbeghardos sunt, opinionem quod non."In chapter beguinas vocatiet 5v-7v),he then"solvitaliud dubiumet ostendit quod non omnesbeghardi sed capitulo, per iura allegatain secundoet tercio beguinevocatecomdempnantur vivitlicite in seculo." genustalium triplex in secularium De paupertate from hisearlier mentions 69. Niderexplicitly perfecta arguments fol.2r. De secularium religionibus, fol.23v. 70. Nider,De paupertate, est per se... quam in ordineperfeccior 71. "Repondetur quod paupertasexistencium existentis." etextra extra ordinem Ibid.,fol. collegium singularis persone cuiuscumque 26r. 72. Ibid.,fol.26v. Infact, he 3.130and 3.133. contra Summa Nidercites 27v-28r. 73. Ibid.,fols. gentiles Aquinas,
ed. RobertoBusa, 7 vols. to 3.132 (S. Thomae seems to be referring Aquinatisoperaomnia,
V. JOHANNES NIDER ON LAY
POVERTY
2:103-4). [Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1980],
479
the spiritualvalue of physicallabor. For secular authorities, opposifromsocial and ecoarose more directly tion to beguines typically nomic concerns.So long as the lay religiouswere perceivedas perwere relationswith civic authorities usefulsocial functions, forming the was as even For instigating example, Mulberg generally good.74 in Basel, thebeguines in nearbyBernwere able wave of persecution because they were widely perceived as to avoid a similar conflict due to theircare forthe sick.75 useful membersof the community from either Nevertheless, perspectivethe point was the same; the while the idle poor were not. Thus as were tolerated workingpoor he in favorof lay religiouspoverty, Nider developed his arguments also needed to focuson questionsabout thevalue oflabor.He sought was allowable,but indeed that to prove notjust thatlay mendicancy was at least as worthwhile a life of religiousmendicancy as, if not labor. in a life better than, spent physical To do so was by no means simple. From the ancientcurse of the Book ofGenesisthatman was condemnedto eat bread in thesweat of otherbiblicaland patristic his brow,on through sources,many reliof manual value and to the had authorities necessity pointed gious acts that between Nider by distinguishing began, therefore, labor.76 and thosethatwereonlygood in their weregood in and ofthemselves beneficial results." For him, of course,labor was among the latter, and other necessities in to obtain food its results-the by ability only honestmeans. Thus he concluded,withThomas Aquinas, that"it is clear that [both] religiousand secular people who are able to live and withoutfalsehood,withoutdesire forthe possessions of others, He withoutscandal,are not held to the apostolicpreceptto labor."78 the standard thenwenton to draw a distinction among religious fairly conbetweenmanual labor and the spirituallabors of prayer, clergy as authorities Here he could cite such so forth. and templation,
und Begardenwesen, 130-31. 74. Neumann, Rheinisches Beginen75. Kathrin Utz Tremp, "Zwischen Ketzerei und Krankenpflege- Die Beginen in der zur Geschichte Stadt Bern," in ZwischenMacht und Dienst: Beitriige spditmittelalterlichen LebenderSchweiz,ed. Sophia Bietenhard(Bern: von Frauenim kirchlichen und Gegenwart Stimpfli,1991), 27-52, esp. 38-42. 76. Nider citesGenesis 3:19, "in sudore vultus tui vesceris pane," as well as Job5:7, "homo fol. 28v). He also cites many early religious ad laborem nascitur" (De paupertate, Ad rusticum on the value of labor, includingJerome, authorities monachum, Cassian, De monachorum institutis 1.4, and the Rule of Saint Benedict (ibid., fol. 29r). fol. 29v. 77. Nider, De paupertate, sine concupiscenciaalienarum 78. "Sic ergo patet quod religiosiet secula[r]es qui sine furtu, rerum,et sine turpi cura vitam habere possunt, undecumque ex precepto apostoli but is fol. 30r. He gives no exact citation, laborare non tenentur."Nider, De paupertate, 3.135. See Aquinas, Opera omnia, gentiles probably drawing on Aquinas, Summacontra 2:105.
480
CHURCHHISTORY
Augustine and Aquinas that,if manual labor impeded othermore itwas better to abstainfrom usefulactivities, physicalwork.79Thus to the question of "whetherthe devoted voluntarypoor who apply to prayer or to readingeither thePsalms or even themselves privately the world of God... can be excused frommanual labor," he felthe an entirely could offer positiveresponse.80 fora good thatmanual laborwas notnecessary determined Having of turned for Nider then to the even the life, question whether laity, alms were a properway to supporta lifefreeof labor and spentin and religiousdevotion.He concluded,withAquinas, contemplation that"it is better to give alms to theholypoor thanto anyoneelse."81 it was licitto supporta life A slightly different questionwas whether that ofcontemplation through mendicancy, is,notsimplyto live from and alms charity freelygiven but activelyto beg for them. The was but Nider's responsewas exactlythe question subtlydifferent, same. After manychallenges manyproofsand answering presenting he concluded,again withAquinas, that"mendicancy to thisposition, but assumed forthe sake of Christnot onlymustnotbe reproached, should be greatly praised."82 Finally,Nider arrivedat the crux of his issue. Given thatmendicancywas both licitand laudable, was it superiorto a lifeofpoverty while one,and ultimately, supportedby labor?The issue was a thorny did of still he for the not he did seek to argue superiority mendicancy, manual which so want to argue completelyagainst labor, many had praised.He began by citing authorities HenryofGhentthatlabor
79. Nider, De paupertate, fol. 31r. He refersto Augustine, De operemonachorum, probably cursuscompletes, seriesLatina,221 vols. [Paris: chapters 9-10 (J.P. Migne, ed. Patrologiae Migne, 1841-64], 40: col. 555-56), and to Aquinas, probably his Contra impugnantes 2.4, "Utrum religiosus propriis manibus laborare" (Aquinas, Opera omnia, paupertatem 3:537-39). 80. "Utrum voluntariepauperes devoti qui aut oraccioniaut leccioni aut psalmis aut eciam fol. verbo dei... privatimpossint excusari a labore manuum?" Nider, De paupertate, 31v. 81. "mellius est dare eleemosynas sanctispauperibus quam quibuscumquam aliis." Nider, Ad vigilancium heretifol. 35r. He cites Aquinas' commentary on Jerome, De paupertate, 2.6 (Aquinas, Opera cum. This is found in Aquinas, Contra impugnantes paupertatem omnia,3:543). 82. "Mendicitas propterChristumassumpta non solum non est reprobanda, sed maxime to Aquinas, Contra fol. 42v. Again, probably referring laudanda." Nider, De paupertate, 2.6 (Aquinas, Opera omnia,3:543-45). It should be noted, as paupertatem, impugnantes mentioned above, that female beguines, who were clearly Nider's main, although not of exclusive, focus in thistreatise, rarelyifever actuallybegged, although communities beguines oftendid receive a considerableamount of alms (see above, n. 32). The careful distinctionof mendicancy frommere receipt of alms seems another example of the purely theoreticalnature of Nider's treatise.
481
but thenimmediately citedBernardof was superiorto mendicancy,83 for Christ Clairvaux:"he who takesup voluntary by giving poverty thathe should seek his sustenance up all worldlypossessions,better by beggingthanby laboringwithhis hands."84Not wishingto conNider posited a distinction between those tradicteitherauthority, in or as he termedit,and actual poverty, "necessarypoverty" living In the of taken on for the sake Christ. thoselivingin voluntary poverty first case, for those living in real or necessarypoverty,labor was but in thesecond case, forthosepracticing to mendicancy, preferable was preferable to labor,as it would mendicancy voluntary poverty, This was not a allow more timeformeritorious religiouspursuits.85 attitude toward the of the charitable world, poor perhaps, truly very but it was a position thatcould, if accepted, resolve the apparent on the matter. discordbetweenearlierreligiousauthorities It would seem, then,thatforthe voluntary religiouspoor at least, the of mendicancyover Nider had definitively proven superiority of the labor. But thenhe added one finaltwist.What ifcommunities devout laity mightlive partiallyby labor and partiallyby mendithe following Saint Bernard, Nider introduced cancy?Stillfollowing If to needs his for the of theentire qualification support mendicancy. met thanmancould more be easily through community mendicancy ual labor,thatis, ifbeggingleft moretimeforspiritual then pursuits, from alms. If,however, should supportitself thecommunity begging actuallytook more timeaway fromspiritualmattersthan working should live fromlabor. "I say, therefore," would, the community of cases the voluntary wrote Nider, "thatin the majority poor can if in live or from attaingreater alms.... perfection they part entirely A was that Thisis thefirst second conclusion, however, conclusion.'"" if the poor were able to acquire sufficient food and othergoods by limited to live by laborthan periodsofhonestlabor,thenitwas better
83. Nider cites Henry, Quodlibet 13.7. See J.Decorte, ed., Henricide Gandavoquodlibet XIII, Henrici de Gandavo opera omnia 18 (Leuven: UniversityPress, 1985), 205-40. 84. "Qui voluntariampaupertatempro Christoaccipitomnibus temporalibusa se abdicatis, melius facitmendicando victumquerere quam manibus laborando." Nider, De pauperhe gives no indicationof which of Bernard's many works tate,fol. 46v. Unfortunately, he is using. 85. "Duplex est mendicitas.Una que est effectus paupertatisnecessie et coacte, alia que est et ideo effectus paupertatisvoluntariepropterdeum assumpte. Prima non est meritoria, perfecciusest vivere de labore manuum quam mendicareprimo modo. Secunda autem et ideo perfecciusest vivere de mendicitateilla quam de labore." Nider, est meritoria, fol. 46v. De paupertate, 86. "Dico ergo quod ut in pluribus ad maioremperfeccionem possent pervenirevoluntarie pauperes, si in parte vel in totoviverentde eleemosynis .... Et hec sitprima conclusio." fol. 47r. Nider, De paupertate,
482
CHURCHHISTORY
Yet a third ifitwas notpossible conclusion was that, by mendicancy."87 to acquire everything to limthe from necessary support community ited labor,but itwas possibleto acquiresome portion ofthenecessary goods, then it was betterto live partiallyfrommendicancyand partiallyfromlabor.88 Nider's conclusionswere certainly Butas complexand convoluted. a completedefenseof thebeguines,at least in termsof poverty, they were unmatched.For he had managed to extendnot just a defense, but indeed praise and active support to every formof lifethe lay concern religiouspoor might adopt. Indeed,forall Nider's theoretical about an absolute oppositionof physical labor to mendicancyand mostbeguines in the earlyfifteenth lived spiritualactivities, century the sort vita and vita of combination of the activa exactly contemplativa thathe ultimately In his arguments, addressed and extolled.89 moreover, the workingsof the new observantDominican approach to thathad been adopted by thesecond generation ofreformers poverty become increasingly No was an strict apparent. longer extremely held and at all a defended more costs. Rather (somewhat) position of povertywas evident.Cereasygoing and flexibleunderstanding and thevoluntary was important, ofworldly tainlypoverty privation in of a imitation was form of life both and Christ goods permissible to and the beneficial alike. Yet highly religious beyondthis clergy laity basic point,Nider was (relatively) unconcerned about theexactform that povertywas to take, and he proved ready to accommodate several different varietiesof practice.
VI. CONCLUSION
was a central virtuethroughout Christian theMiddle Ages, Poverty and many devout people, both clericsand the laity,soughta lifeof Yet understandings of and approaches to poverty religiouspoverty. differed considerablyacross Christiansocietyand especiallywithin the churchitself, of mendiwhere secular clergydisputed the rights and even within cants,religiousordersdiffered amongstthemselves, a single order different ideals of povertycould and did manifest
87. "Secunda conclusio est quod si aliquibus paucis horis possent aquirere totumvictum suum honesto labore, plus valereteis ad perfeccionem consequendam vivere de labore manuum quam totum victum habere per mendicacionem sive per eleemosynas sibi datas et nunquam operari." Nider, De paupertate, fol. 47r. 88. "Tercia conclusio est quod si non possunt totumvictum neccessarium paucis horis et honesto labore non implicando aquirere, possunt tamen aquirere partem, tunc plus valeret ad perfeccionem consequendam ut in pluribus quod partimviverentde labore manuum, partimde eleemosynis,quam quod nunquam laborarent."Nider, De paupertate,fol. 47v. 89. Wilts, Beginenin Bodenseeraum, 152-53, 238-39.
483
ofpoverty, All ofthesevariousinterpretations themselves. connecting in one another informed and often complexways. In the conflicting, of religious poverty late Middle Ages, ideals and understandings and with broad conceptionsof reform encounteredand interacted so that late medieval renewal religiosity profoundly. shaped spiritual Withinreligiousorders,and especiallyamong the mendicantorders of the church,debates over the nature and extentof true religious or observantmovements. were of centralconcernto reform poverty extendedbeyond the ordersas concerns over poverty Yet reformers' would how religiousclergy,and the churchitself, well, to inform and especiallythe and respondto lay desiresforpoverty understand lifeof devout beguines. impoverished and the deThe examples discussed here,the BaslerBeginenstreit fense of beguines at the later Council of Basel, the thoughtand JohannesMulberg and of the writingsof the Dominican reformer Dominican reformer Nider, have touched on all these asJohannes When examin the of century. earlyfifteenth pects religiouspoverty and the issues forces some of to ined closely, swirling help clarify they around thisevercomplexand evervitalreligiousideal as it existedat thestrict theend oftheMiddle Ages. As thecase ofMulbergindicates, notonly reformers of Dominican the first ideals of generation poverty to stymie raised strongoppositionwithinthe order and threatened but also generated, or at least contribtheeffective spread of reform, to an uted strongly to, uncompromising opposition lay poverty.As of observantDothe case of Nider indicates,the second generation to some extent. on their minicanssoftened They did position poverty and for it reasons, so, seems,largely practical theymanaged to revimovementand renew its spread, so that it ultitalize theirreform withintheOrderofPreachforce would becomethedominant mately of true and proper poverty ers. Justas Mulberg's understanding motivatedhis attackon beguines in Basel in the early years of the of I have argued here, so Nider's understanding fifteenth century, and of of the defense informed his also beguines, profound poverty in council The the 1430s. at of Basel in the Council lay poverty general, was actively debatingthequestionablestatusofbeguines,along with and influand Nider was an important otherissues of lay religiosity, on religious of thecouncilin theseyears.His thought entialmember and reform, developed and set forthin this mendicancy, poverty, and issues could and did interact how various reveal these context, in Middle the late one anotherin important inform Ages. ways

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American Society of Church History

and Religious Poverty, Mendicancy, in theLateMiddleAges1 Reform

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,

begging.32 "It is entirelyillicit," he wrote, "for [other] clerics, just as

were allowed to live fromalms and to supportthemselves through

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY,

RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY, AND REFORM

Mulberg, of course, went far beyond mere indifference.He was

RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY, AND REFORM

poverty as set forth by his friend and master Konrad of Prussia,

51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,

V. JOHANNES NIDER ON LAY

2:103-4). [Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1980],

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS MENDICANCY, POVERTY,

AND REFORM RELIGIOUS POVERTY, MENDICANCY,

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