TY - BOOK ID - 77876464 TI - Equal in monastic profession PY - 1993 SN - 0226401979 9786612089886 1282089889 9780226401973 0226401863 9780226401867 6612089881 9781282089884 PB - Chicago University of Chicago Press DB - UniCat KW - Nuns KW - Monasticism and religious orders for women KW - Women in Christianity KW - Convents KW - Sisterhoods KW - Sisters (in religious orders, congregations, etc.) KW - Christians KW - History. KW - History KW - Catholic Church KW - religion, nunnery, cloister, monasticism, retreat, medieval, nuns, women, gender, faith, devotion, piety, community, subordination, equality, france, monks, spirituality, christianity, catholicism, church history, premodern europe, religious orders, middle ages, lay society, clerics, identity, personhood, miracles, hierarchy, economics, administration, management, perfection, vows, eudes rigaud, female, nonfiction. KW - France UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77876464 AB - In this study of the manner in which medieval nuns lived, Penelope Johnson challenges facile stereotypes of nuns living passively under monastic rule, finding instead that collectively they were empowered by their communal privileges and status to think and act without many of the subordinate attitudes of secular women. In the words of one abbess comparing nuns with monks, they were "different as to their sex but equal in their monastic profession." Johnson researched more than two dozen nunneries in northern France from the eleventh century through the thirteenth century, balancing a qualitative reading of medieval monastic documents with a quantitative analysis of a lengthy thirteenth-century visitation record which allows an important comparison of nuns and monks. A fascinating look at the world of medieval spirituality, this work enriches our understanding of women's role in premodern Europe and in church history. ER -