In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Monk's Tale is compromised of seventeen individual tales, which instead of serving a moral lesson one would expect of a clergy member, serves as a quasi-hunt that allows the Monk to participate in his favorite, violent hobby. The Monk personifies fortune as a hunter, striking down successful men who are unsuspecting of the violent downfall which awaits them. The Monk structures his tale to resemble the different stages of a hunt and fills it with violent, animalistic, and erotic imagery that works to strengthen the Monk's perception of his own masculinity while simultaneously providing a form of sexual pleasure that he is otherwise forbidden to experience. Hunting played a significant role in medieval society and literature. Though clergy members were typically forbidden or discouraged from participating in the sport, significant aspects of the history surrounding medieval hunting shed light on the Monk's identity as primarily a hunter.

The thesis focuses on the history of several Czech benedictine monasteries in the period marked by two major milestones in Czech history, them being the outbreak of the Hussite Revolution and the Battle of White Mountain. It aims to juxtapose monasteries abandoned in the post-Hussite era with the ones that had undergone restoration and remained active during the above mentioned period. Apart from trying to put together an overall outline of the convents' history, the thesis also addresses select problems the abbots of the restored monasteries had to face in the course of the aforementioned two centuries. KEY WORDS Benedictine monks, monastery, priory, Hussitism, secularization, protestantism

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 278 is an early-fourteenth-century trilingual manuscript of the Psalms from Norwich Cathedral Priory, an urban cathedral church staffed by Benedictine monks. This manuscript is notable because it contains one of six Middle English Metrical Psalters, the earliest Middle English translation of the Psalms, as well as a full Anglo-Norman Oxford Psalter, the most popular French translation of the Psalms in late medieval England. While the Middle English Metrical Psalter is a remarkable and understudied text in and of itself, the Metrical Psalter of CCC 278 is even more interesting because of its monastic provenance and innovative layout. This thesis explores the questions of why a monastic institution would produce a manuscript of two complete, prominently displayed, vernacular Psalters with only highly abbreviated Latin textual references; what sociolinguistic and political forces drove the production of this innovative manuscript; and how the Middle English Metrical Psalter in particular was read, and by whom. Because there are no annotations, colophon, prologue or external documentation to provide clues to either the intended or actual use of the manuscript by the Priory monks, this thesis undertakes a detailed historicization and contextualization of the book in its urban, religious, linguistic and social settings. In addition, the lenses of community, mediation, and authority are applied, leading to the conclusion that CCC 278 and its Middle English Metrical Psalter were likely used by the monks to reach out to Norwich’s élite laity in order to form a mixed reading community around the book—a reading community controlled by the Priory.

Au Xe siècle, l’Eglise savoyarde se trouve dans une situation catastrophique. Désorganisé par les différentes invasions, le clergé séculier peine à se redresser. Pour remédier à cette situation, l’épiscopat décide l’installation de moines venus des grandes abbayes. C’est ainsi que l’on note l’apparition de nombreux prieurés sur les terres diocésaines. Ces maisons religieuses s’installent durablement et prennent une place importante dans la vie des paroisses qui les accueillent. Leurs destins diffèrent, mais certains prieurés réguliers sont toujours conventuels à l’époque moderne. Les différents évêques en dénombrent cinq, dont quatre sont fondés autour du Xe siècle. Il s’agit des prieurés de Bellevaux en Bauges, de Peillonnex, de Talloires et de Contamine. Cette étude porte sur le rôle que jouent ces institutions dans le contexte de la Contre-Réforme catholique, instaurée dans le diocèse au cours des dernières décennies du XVIe siècle. Elle s’articule autour de trois grandes parties. La première retrace l’évolution des prieurés depuis leur fondation jusqu’à l’instauration de la Réforme à Genève. La seconde partie relate l’histoire des différents monastères au cours de trois siècles de l’Ancien Régime. La troisième et dernière partie est plus thématique. Elle tente de définir la place qu’occupent les prieurés conventuels dans la vie politique, religieuse et économique du diocèse de Genève-Annecy aux XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. / In the 10th century, the Church from Savoy is in a very poor state. Weakened by various invasions, the secular clergy struggles to recover. Monks from major abbeys are sent by the episcopate influencing the creation of priories on the diocesan land. These religious houses settle permanently and play an important role in the life of the parishes hosting them. While regular priories had to face different fates, some of them are still conventual in the modern era. The different bishops count five conventual priories, but only four of these were founded around the 10th century. These are the priories of Bellevaux en Bauges, Peillonnex, Talloires and Contamine. This study focuses on the role of these institutions in the context of the Catholic Reformation introduced in the diocese during the last decades of the 16th century. The study is based on three main points. The first point traces back the evolution of the priories from their foundation until the introduction of the Reform movement in Geneva. The second part concentrates on the story of the monasteries over three centuries under the Ancien Regime. The last part is more thematic as it outlines how the conventual priories influence the political, religious and economic life of the Annecy-Geneva's diocese in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.