• In Italy, a Benedictine monk named Romuald founded a monastic
house at Camaldoli near Arezzo that also demanded only the bare
minimum of communal ties.
o Specific practice differed from house to house, with an
emphasis less on communal conformity than the individual
development of the spiritual life, which demanded more time
alone than the Cluniac or Cistercian traditions allowed.o The Camaldolese consciously tried to unite the best ideals of
the Benedictine common life with the more Eastern emphasis
on the eremitical life.Burton and Kerr, The Cistercians in the Middle Ages.
LeClercq (Misrahi, trans.), The Love of Learning and the Desire for God.
- Discuss the factors (explicit and implicit) that made monasticism
attractive to medieval Christians in a way that it is not for most people,
even Christians, today. - What tendencies in monastic life necessitated reform within and outside
the Benedictine tradition?
Suggested Reading
Questions to Consider