Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Düsseldorf, 2001/2002. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Le moine hétérodoxe Ewostâtëwos (Eustathe sous forme francisée) est à l'origine de la fondation de plusieurs monastères dans le premier tiers du XIVe siècle dans le nord du royaume chrétien d'Éthiopie. Outre le plaidoyer pour l'indépendance des moines à l'égard des laïcs, Ëwostâtëwos prône la stricte observance des deux sabbats, une doctrine jugée hérétique par le métropolite égyptien et le souverain éthiopien. En raison de leurs positions non-conformistes, les disciples d'Ëwostâtëwos, les eustathéens, sont mis au ban de la société, dès la seconde moitié du XIVe siècle. Malgré les persécutions, les fondations monastiques se multiplient. Cette thèse cherche alors à rendre compte de la genèse de ce puissant mouvement monastique au nord de l'Éthiopie chrétienne du début du XIVe siècle, jusqu'au milieu du XVe siècle, date à laquelle les eustathéens parviennent à faire triompher leurs positions auprès du roi Zar'a Yâ'eqob. En s'interrogeant sur l'identité hétérodoxe de la prédication eustathéenne, ce travail analyse le processus d'émergence et de construction de ce mouvement monastique à différentes échelles. Cette enquête met en évidence la diversité des stratégies mises en œuvre par les eustathéens pour construire un mouvement polynucléaire puissant et inventer l'histoire de leurs origines. / At the beginning of the 14th century the monk Ewostâtëwos initiated a powerful monastic movement in the northern part of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Ëwostâtëwos was bath a staunch advocate of his fellow monks' freedom and a strong defender of the two-sabbaths, the observance of which was deemed heretical. Thus, his disciples, the Ewostateans, were banished. Despite the persecutions, the monastic foundations were still growing. This PhD thesis sheds light on the genesis of this powerful monastic movement from the 14th century to the middle of the 15th century, when the Ewostateans made their ideas prevail at the court of king Zar'a Yâ'eqob. Focusing on the heterodox identity of Ewostateans, this study analyzes the building of the monastic communities at different scales. This investigation reveals the large spectrum of strategies that the Ewostateans applied to build a multi-centered movement and to invent their origins.

Drawn from examples principally of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this article analyzes the importance which feminine monasteries enjoyed in the cities of New Spain because they administered religious images which were considered miraculous. The images attracted numerous faithful, which resulted in increased economic benefits for the monasteries, thanks to the alms, and the social prestige of the monasteries. Finally, the article argues that, for the cities which housed these monasteries, the presence of the nuns who administered the images was fundamental for constructing their local identity. / A partir de ejemplos tomados fundamentalmente de los siglos XVII y XVIII, el presente artículo analiza la importancia que tenía para los monasterios femeninos en las ciudades de la Nueva España el administrar imágenes religiosas reputadas como milagrosas. Estas últimas atraían a numerosos fieles, lo que aumentaba tanto el beneficio económico de los monasterios, gracias a las limosnas, como el capital social de los mismos. Finalmente, el artículo sostiene que, para las ciudades, la existencia de dichas imágenes y la presencia de las monjas que las administraban eran fundamentales, pues ambos factores eran centrales en la constitución de la identidad local.

Estudo sobre a arquitetura dos principais mosteiros beneditinos construídos no Brasil na segunda metade do século XX, quando simultaneamente à evolução dos costumes e às novas interpretações das regras religiosas monásticas, os trabalhos construtivos empreendidos dentro dos claustros adquirem um novo significado. Desse processo de renovação resultou uma produção heterogênea, que introduz modificações no programa arquitetônico tradicional dos mosteiros e que requer para sua compreensão um estudo especifico e aprofundado, face à escassez de informações sistematizadas disponíveis. Por meio da análise de seis obras contemporâneas e exemplares dessa produção, duas delas de autoria do arquiteto Hans Broos, o trabalho pretende identificar as contribuições arquitetônicas presentes nesses projetos para mosteiros beneditinos e analisar sua adequação aos propósitos de uma vida comunitária consagrada, vinculada com a liturgia e com a arte, elucidando assim os requisitos básicos para o reconhecimento e crítica dessa modalidade de produção. Desse modo, o estudo pretende contribuir para a análise do processo de renovação da arquitetura religiosa brasileira, um tema pouco explorado no panorama da historiografia da arquitetura nacional. / Study about architecture of main Benedictine monasteries built in Brazil during second half of XXth. Century, when the concurrency of evolutive habits and new commentaries of religious monastic rules, lead to new meanings of the monastic building. From this renovation process an heterogeneous production was resulted, introducing changes in the traditional architectonic program of the monasteries, and to know them requires an specific and deeper analysis, because they have a few systematic data available. By the analysis of six contemporary and emblematic works from that production, a couple by Hans Broos, this study aims identify the architectonical contributions in the projects for Benedictine monasteries and to investigate their adequacy to the devises of a consecrated communitarian life, linked with liturgy and fine arts, clarifying basic requirements to a knowing and critics of this kind of production. Most of all, the study aims to contribute to an analysis of the process of renovation of Brazilian religious architecture, a very few researched theme in the panorama of national architectonic history.

No comprehensive study of Luther's attitude towards monasticism is available in English. Most of the English works on Luther devote only a few pages or part of a chapter to this aspect of his life. Two reasons account for the cursory treatment. First, concern with the great themes of Luther's theology has led (Protestants at least) to concentrate on the theological aspects of his critique monasticism as a denial of the free grace of God, and as involving a mistaken view of perfection. Pelikan has commented: "Valid though this concentration on the theological aspects of Luther's polemic against monasticism is, it may obscure the bearing of that polemic upon the structures of the church." Moreover, a concern for theology 'pure and simple': (if such is possible) has led to a tendency to arrive at Luther's view of monasticism by a process of deduction from his great theme of justification by grace through faith alone, so that many of the niceties of his position, and especially the gentleness of his approach, have been obscured. Second, the cursory treatment is possible because there is a real sense in which the arguments Luther adduced in his major work on monasticism - though comprehensive and systematic - were by no means original. Yet, The Judgement of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows was the most decisive critique of monasticism ever presented. Summary, p. 2-3.

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This paper examines the economic aspects of Buddhist monasteries in Chinese history in chronological order. The focus is on the problems related to land and taxes, which were crucial factors for the economic situation of monasteries and sensitive issues in the governing of every dynasty. By looking into the interaction among Buddhist monasteries, state/local government, great families and elites regarding land estates and tax policies in different time periods, the study reveals that despite the lasting criticisms that Buddhist monasteries were harmful to the economic wellbeing of society and effected the revenue of the state, monasteries in fact actively engaged in economic activities, and could be utilized by the state as a tool to centralize wealth from society, contributing to the state economy in its own way. The role of Buddhist monasteries was largely decided by their subject position in front of the state. The study shows that the prosperity of monastic economy was of different levels under the different social and political environment in each dynasty, but even in its most prosperous time, the scale of monasteries could be easily reduced by the state and their resources could be appropriated by government when it was considered necessary. Besides, the study also depicts the process of Buddhist monasteries gradually becoming taxed by the state, showing the general tendency that the Buddhist monastic economy was in the process of becoming more incorporated into or controlled by the state across time. / Master of Arts (MA)

Histories of medieval astronomy have brought to light a rich textual tradition, of treatises and tables composed and computed, transmitted and translated across Europe and beyond. These have been supplemented by fruitful inquiry into the material culture of astronomy, especially the instruments that served as models of the heavens, for teaching and for practical purposes. But even now we know little about the practices of medieval astronomers: how they obtained and passed on their knowledge; how they drew up and used mathematical tables; how they drafted the treatises in which they found words to express their ideas and inventions for their particular audiences. This thesis uses a case study approach to elucidate these medieval astronomical practices. Long thought to be a holograph manuscript in the hand of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Equatorie of the Planetis (Peterhouse, Cambridge MS 75.I) has recently been identified as the work of John Westwyk (d. c. 1400), a Benedictine monk of Tynemouth Priory and St Albans Abbey. His draft description of the construction and use of an astronomical instrument, with accompanying tables, provides an opportunity to reconstruct the practices of an unexceptional astronomer. The first chapter of this thesis reconstructs Westwyk’s astronomical reading and understanding, through an examination of the other manuscript that survives in his hand: a pair of instrument treatises by the outstanding monastic astronomer Richard of Wallingford. I show how Westwyk copied this manuscript in a monastic context, learning as he annotated texts and recomputed tables. In the second chapter I discuss the purposes of planetary instruments such as equatoria, their place among other astronomical instruments, and the physical constraints and possibilities experienced by their makers. Through this discussion I assess the craft environment in which Westwyk came to write his own instrument-making instructions. Chapters three and four assess Westwyk’s language, explaining the basis for his choice to write a technical work in the vernacular, and analysing how his innovative use of Middle English furthered his didactic objectives. In the final chapter, I undertake a technical reassessment of the Equatorie treatise, an integrated analysis of the instrument with the somewhat neglected tables that Westwyk compiled alongside it. The thesis thus applies a range of methodologies to examine the practices and products of a single inexpert astronomer from all angles. It aims to show what an in-depth case study approach can offer historians of the medieval sciences.

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This thesis is a meditation upon silence, upon its ontological relationship to architecture. As such, it relies more upon insight and contemplation than analysis. It seeks to explore this realm through the making of a trappist monastery, to ask fundamental questions about the nature of human dwelling in the most complete sense, to stir the memory and perhaps to move the heart toward that silence which is beyond thought, which precedes and bounds and yet pervades all human experience. / Master of Architecture