Reading between the lines: compilation, variation, and the recovery of an authentic female voice in the Dornenkron prayer books from Wienhausen
2003; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 29; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0304-4181(03)00013-7
ISSN1873-1279
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies of British Isles
ResumoAbstract In medieval studies, the personal ownership and use of spiritual works by cloistered women as well as their participation in book production remain largely terra ignota. Apart from the lives and works of a few outstanding individuals who achieved recognition as saints and/or mystics, scholars know little about the devotional concerns and spiritual practices of ordinary medieval nuns. The current image of female spirituality thus relies primarily on the experiences of extraordinary women, while questions about what nuns read and how they prayed still remain. In order to address this issue, it is necessary to also ask: can authentic women’s voices and spiritual concerns be recovered without the distortion caused by the cura monialium? Three prayer books from the former Cistercian convent of Wienhausen in Lower Saxony illustrate the devotional concerns of ordinary nuns as well as provide evidence of female involvement in book production. Recounting the meditative prayer of the Dornenkron, these manuscripts reveal the nuns’ individual spiritual concerns through their variations in content and composition. Produced in the wake of a spiritual revival emerging from the convent’s initially un-wanted reform in 1469, these works indicate how the religious women of this community actively shaped their private devotions within the context of sweeping monastic reform. Detailed scrutiny of these prayer books, a careful reading between the lines, indicates that individual spiritual concerns and personal choices influenced the composition of each nun’s work. Keywords: Female monasticismFemale spiritualityPrayer booksWienhausen Dornenkron Notes 1 The reform of Wienhausen in 1469 was recorded both by Johannes Busch, in his Liber de reformatione monasteriorum, and by an anonymous female chronicler of the community of Wienhausen. From these two accounts, a very detailed picture of the reform and the nuns’ response to the reformers emerges. The monastic chronicler recorded that Busch came around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Johannes Busch, Liber de reformatione monasteriorum, ed. Karl Grube (Halle, 1886); Chronik und Totenbuch des Klosters Wienhausen, ed. Horst Appuhn (Wienhausen, 1986), 19. 2 None of the ecclesiastical reformers came from a Cistercian community. Johannes Busch came from Sülte, a community of Augustinian regular canons, and the monasteries of Saint Michael and Saint Godehard in Hildesheim belonged to the Benedictine order. The reforming impulse thus did not stem from the Cistercian order but rather from the ecclesiastical and secular rulers of the region. This was common in the fifteenth century. The family of Oppernshusen (alternately Othbernshusen, Obbernshusen) had many ties to the convent, attested to from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Members of the Oppernshusen family appear frequently in the convent necrology as nuns and donors. Mechtild von Obbernshusen was elected as abbess after the death of Gertrud Eltze in 1440, but prior to her confirmation the abbacy was returned once again to Katherina von Hoya. Chronik und Totenbuch, 13. The knight Johannes von Oppernshusen, who accompanied the reformers in 1469, appears as a witness in the charters recording the sale of tithes by the provost and in a charter bequeathing a farm to the convent in the event of the death of all his male heirs (both issued in 1476). Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Urkunden 526, 529. Four nuns, Kunigundis, Cecilia, Alheid and Anna von Oppernshusen died during the abbacy of Catherine Remstede (1501–1549), revealing the prominence of this family in Wienhausen. Chronik und Totenbuch, 79. 3 Busch conceded that the nuns of Wienhausen maintained their vow of chastity but accused them of being proprietaria, that is of owning personal property and failing to live a communal lifestyle. He also mentions that they sang secular songs. He recorded the words of the abbess, recalling that she said: “Ego sicut ordinem in isto monasterio ante quadraginta annos servari inveni et sicut eum per tot annos ipsa servavi, ita eum ulterius servare volo et non aliter”. Busch, Liber de reformatione, 630–634; see also Chronik und Totenbuch, 19. 4 Cumque ad curiam pervenisset putans se ad monasterii ambitum intraturam, abbas Sancti Michaelis dominus Henricus uno brachio et ego altero brachio eam apprehendentes duximus eam ad currum ibi in curia circa monasterium statem et cum equis ire paratum dicentes ei: ‘Bona domina, currus ibi stat paratus, quem oportet vos ascendere’. Que respondit: ‘Hoc facere nolo’. Et nos cappe eius manicis eam moderate trahentes et ad currum venientes rogavimus eam, ut currrum ascenderet. Busch, Liber de reformatione, 631. The former abbess spent approximately a year at Derneburg before she was permitted to return to Wienhausen, where she died in 1474. 5 None of the small books contain ex libris entries to indicate that they were held communally. A few manuscripts do include the names of the individual nun who used or created them. No serious study of these manuscripts has been undertaken to date. An examination of some of the musical manuscripts, conducted by Heinrich Sievers in 1954, includes a cursory examination of three of the prayer books. Heinrich Sievers, ‘Die Wienhäuser Choralhandschriften aus dem Handschriftenfund von 1953’ (Wienhausen/Hanover, 1954), Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, 401 M. 6 Most of the research conducted on nuns’ ownership of devotional aids has focused on their use of religious art, such as Andachtsbilder. Jeffrey Hamburger, The visual and the visionary: art and female spirituality in late medieval Germany (New York, 1998); also Maria Magdalene Zunker, ‘Spätmittelalterliche Nonnenmalereien aus der Abtei St. Walburg: Versuche eine Deutung’, in: Spiegel der Seligkeit: Privates Bild und Frömmigkeit im Spätmittelalter, ed. Frank Mathias Kammel (Nuremberg, 2000), 97–116. Regarding convent libraries and the use of devotional works by lay women: David Bell, What nuns read: books and libraries in medieval English nunneries (Kalamazoo, MI, 1995); Susan Groag Bell, ‘Medieval women book owners: arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture’, in: Women and power in the Middle Ages, ed. Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski (Athens, GA, 1988), 149–187; Marie-Louise Ehrenschwendtner, ‘A library collected by and for the use of nuns: Saint Catherine’s convent Nuremberg’, in: Women and the book: assessing the visual evidence, ed. Jane H.M. Taylor and Lesley Smith (Toronto, 1996), 123–132; Christine Kupper, ‘Handschriften für das private Gebet’, in: Spiegel der Seligkeit, 117–130. 7 Alison I. Beach, ‘Claustration and collaboration between the sexes in the twelfth-century scriptorium’, in: Monks and nuns, saints and outcasts: religion in medieval society: essays in honor of Lester K. Little, ed. Sharon Farmer and Barbara Rosenwein (NY, 2000), 58. 8 For example, Rosemary Hale, “‘Taste and see, for God is sweet’: sensory perception and memory in medieval Christian mystical experience”, in: Vox Mystica: essays on medieval mysticism in honor of Professor Valerie M. Lazario, ed. Anne Clark Bartlett with Thomas H. Bestal, Janet Goebel and William F. Pollard (Cambridge, 1995), 5, 14; Elizabeth Petroff, ‘Women’s bodies and the experience of God in the Middle Ages’, Vox Benedictina, 5 (1991), 91–115; Caroline Bynum, Holy feast and holy fast: the religious significance of food to medieval women (Berkeley, 1987). 9 Jeffrey Hamburger, “‘On the little bed of Jesus’: pictorial piety and monastic reform”, in: The visual and the visionary, 383. For the use of artwork in female spiritual practices: Hamburger, The visual and the visionary; Zunker, ‘Spätmittelalterliche Nonnenmalereien’; and Jeryldene Wood, Women, art and spirituality: the poor clares of early modern Italy (Cambridge, 1996). 10 Following definitions drawn from feminist theory, this paper defines gender as socially constructed and separate from biological sex. In speaking of medieval gender ideologies, I refer to the social classification of male and female roles and relationships as well as the socially created distinctions between femininity and masculinity that structured aspects of daily life such as work, literacy, and personal expression. Thus medieval attitudes regarding the two sexes declared certain types of work, such as sewing and household chores, as well as certain levels of literacy, i.e. little Latin knowledge, and certain forms of expression, such as a piety emphasising maternal or somatic responses to Christ or the Virgin, as particularly appropriate for women. Naturally, exceptions may be found in each respect; nevertheless, these attitudes structured the lives of noble women in particular, and since nuns came largely from this social class, these ideas appear to have influenced female monastic life as well. 11 Jeffrey Hamburger, ‘A Liber Precum in Selestat and the development of the illustrated prayer book in Germany’, Art Bulletin, 73 (1991), 234; Jeffrey Hamburger, Nuns as artists: the visual culture of a medieval convent (Berkeley, 1997), 137, 175; Hamburger, ‘On the little bed of Jesus’; Wood, Women, art and spirituality; Bynum, Holy feast; Hale, ‘Taste and see’. 12 Many of the manuscripts appear to be fragments of missals or breviaries. In addition, two manuscripts of the Stations of the Cross and a fragment of an Easter play exist, Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschriften 85, 86 and 80, respectively. Many of the manuscripts are written on paper or coarse vellum and have covers made from reused liturgical manuscripts. 13 Only one example of a mixed form of Latin and Middle Low German exists in Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 40. 14 Gerard Achten and Hermann Knaus refer to 17 prayer books that include the meditative prayer of the Dornenkron in Deutsche und Niederländische Gebetbuchhandschriften der Hessischen Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt (Darmstadt, 1959). Their work indicates that the prayer was popular towards the final decades of the fifteenth century; all the works that include this prayer were written after 1450. The earliest manuscript to contain the prayer dates to ca. 1480. The prayer frequently appears in the years between 1490 and 1530; the latest work in which it appears was written in 1612. A prayer book in the University library of Leipzig, from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, also includes the work. See Verzeichnis der Deutschen Mittelalterlichen Handschriften in der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, ed. Franzjosef Pensel (Berlin, 1998), 282–283. The prayer also appears in the Christenspiegel of Dietrich Kolde of Münster, written ca. 1499. Dietrich Kolde, Der Christenspiegel des Dietrich Koldes von Münster, ed. Clemens Drees (Werl, 1954). 15 Manuscript 60 includes the plea: orate pro scriptrice. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 60, p. 25v. 16 The interpretation of Old Testament narratives and prophetic statements in light of the events of the New Testament had a long tradition in medieval Biblical exegesis. Interpreting the Old Testament with specific reference to Christ’s passion developed as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries. James Marrow, Passion iconography in northern European art of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance: a study of the transformation of sacred metaphor into descriptive narrative (Kortrijk, 1979), 9–25. 17 Marrow, Passion iconography, 191–192. 18 Marrow, Passion iconography, 49. 19 Eyn islick vort gant dyner hilgen vot stappen hefft dy sunderlike pyne vormert in dynen hilgen hovede…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 18v. Van der antedinge und uthtendinge so wert de pyne dyner smerte vornyget…itlike togen de dorne kronen grymmeliken uth dynen hovede my der hudt myt den vlesche dar de hare weren inne backen Do du werest wedder gekledet do helben se de dorne kronen wedder up dyn hilge hovet gesettet myt groter pyne…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 60, 17v–18r. 20 The graphic details of the Dornenkron created a sense of historical present, which helped to place the passion narrative in the present and made memories of Christ’s passion rival personal memories in terms of their vividness and contemporary references. Emphasis on Christ’s thoughts and feelings further enabled a nun to identify directly with Christ and hence appropriate his experiences as her own. 21 Marrow states that at least one-third of the total extant codices from the convent of the Sint-Agnesklooster at Maaseik contain narrative accounts of Christ’s passion or similar passion material. Marrow, Passion iconography, 21. 22 Bynum, Holy feast, 26, 233. Donald Weinstein and Rudolph Bell, Saints and society: the two worlds of western Christendom, 1000–1700 (Chicago, 1982), 123–137. 23 Although Saint Francis is credited as the first stigmatic, experiencing mystical stigmata ca. 1224, Mary of Oignies likely preceded him. Ida of Louvain and Elizabeth of Spalbeek indicate that experience of the mystical stigmata in the thirteenth century was a predominantly female experience. Bynum, Holy feast, 119, 256. 24 Marrow, Passion iconography, 25. 25 Marrow, Passion iconography, 193. 26 Catherine Mooney, ‘Voice, gender, and the portrayal of sanctity’, in: Gendered voices: medieval saints and their interpreters, ed. Catherine M. Mooney (Philadelphia, 1999), 1–15. Ironically, in the same year Albrecht Classen published his Deutsche Frauenlieder des fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhunderts (Amsterdam, 1999) in which he claims that the writing and voices of women appear quite prominently among German Volkslieder. Classen, Deutsche Frauenlieder, xxiii–xxiv. 27 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 16r, 17v, 18r. This text also elaborates that the Jews placed the crown of thorns on Christ’s head for the third time and remarks that the thorns pressing into his first wounds increased Christ’s pain. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 20v. 28 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 16r. 29 Hir volget na seven seventich artikel van den lydende unses salichmakers dat he geleden hefft an synen hilgen hovede de hefft ge settet eyn broder der mynneren brodere ge heten Theodornen und duth beth wert ge heten de dorne kronen unses leven heren were lest vor den belde Christi…Dusse dorne kronen schal me beden des sondages nochteren und ok gerne erme sprickt stande iffte knyiende edder in der venyen sunder nycht sittende id sy den sake men kranck were…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 1r–2v. Marrow also notes that one of the manuscripts of the Secret Passion also mentioned that a monk wrote it. Marrow, Passion iconography, 185. 30 Dusse dorne kronen schal me beden des sondages nochteren und ok gerne erme sprickt stande iffte knyiende edder in der venyen sunder nycht sittende id sy den sake men kranck were…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 2r–v. 31 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 1v–2r. 32 …de deyt gode den heren eynen groten denst und vordenet mantvoldige gnade besunderken wert ome vorkortet de pyne des vege…Ock mennyth mynschen helben kregen vor lichtinghe und beteringe der wedage des hovedes van krafft duss bedes[.] Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 1v–2r. 33 O leve here vor leve my stetliken dyn hilge lydent betrachten und in gedechtenisse hebben mynes herten besunderken an der tyt der krancheit des lichammes und des hovedes. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 6v. 34 The exclamation appears 14 times in manuscript 60, preceding each section. Wes ge grotet translates as Sei gegrüßt, which I have rendered as greetings in English. Manuscript 31 does not include this refrain. 35 Duth beth wert ge heten de dorne kronen unses leven heren wese lest vor den belde Christ…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 1v. 36 We overst dusser bede nycht lessen konde de mach dar vor spreken seven seventich pater noster und ave Maria und betrachte dat hilge lydent unses heren wo he geleden hefft an synen benedieden hovede. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 2v. 37 Duth na gescreven beth leset alle dage vor unser leven frouwen belde alse se in der sunne steit. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 16r. 38 Handschrift 1910 from the westphalian Benedictine convent of Herzebrock states: Dyt gebet salmen lesen vor dat belde unser leuen vrouwen…in reference to prayers to Mary and her crown, p. 146 v. Hs 1001, a prayer book from the Augustinian female house of St Maria Magdalena or Weiße Frauen, has prayers following the Dornenkron that the nun is instructed to say before images of the crucifixion and Mary, p. 138r–165r. Achten, Gebetbuchhandschriften, 269, 299. Such practices were common among female houses. 39 In addition, Wienhausen manuscripts 31 and 60 contain excerpts, specifically antiphons, drawn from the liturgy. 40 Dignare me domine Ihesu Christe laudare salutare et adorare te regaleque caput tuum pro me vulneratum conspiritum et cesum gratiasque agere pro cunctis peius in illo perpessis praecipue spinea corona defende me ab inimicis ut te adiuvate implere valeam Ave spina pene remedium servi decus regis obprobrium tua plaga dolor indibrium vite nobis mereantur praemium Amen. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 69, p. 1r–v. Manuscript 31 declares: Wes gegrotet du godige here Ihesu Criste vul gnade barmherticheit is myt dy du bist gebenediet boven allen ghebenediet is dyn lydent dyne hilgen wunden und dyn doth und gebenediet sy dat blot dyner hilgen wunden amen [.] O here Ihesu Criste ick love und danck dy vor alle pyne umme mynen willen geleden heffst besunderken an dynen hovede in der dornekronen ick bidde dy beware my vor allen ovele lyves und der sele und myne viff synen und redelicheit wente an mynes lyves ende und nummer verode gescheden van dyner barmherticheit…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 1r–v. 41 Ick bidde dy beware my vor allen ovele lyves und der sele und myne viff synen und redelicheit wente an mynes lyves ende und nummer verode gescheden van dyner barmherticheit. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 1v. 42 O here Ihesu christe des levendigen godes sone Ick unwerdige unde boshafftige creature ik begere itzunth innychliken dyn konnychlike hovet dat umme mynent willen is vor wundet bespiget unde geslagen to grotende antobedende unde werdichliken to lovende unde dy to danckende vor alle pyne de du in dynen benedienden hovede hefft geledden van der dorne kronen halven in dynen vor smatliken lydende[.] Ick bidde dy aldersoteste here Iheus Christe dat du my…und ander stunde mynes dodes unde alle mynes levender losest van aller merckliker bekoringe unde bewarest vor allen ovele lyves unde sele unde myne viff synne vor misst unde redelicheyt mote beholden wente an mynes lyves ende unde schicke alle myne begheringe unde wercke na dynen willen uppe dat ik nummer werde gescheden van dyner barmherticheit unde van der clarrichkesten beschowinghe dynes alderschonesten antlates. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 3r–4v. 43 Unde help my dat ik dyne dorne kronen an den sondage to tokomende echt mothe innychliken eren uppe dat dat vordenst dynes hilgen lydendes nummer an my werde vorloren…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 24v. 44 O leve herre Ihesu Christ ick arme sunderynne dancke dy uth grunth mynes herten vor alle pyn und martir de du umme mynen willen geleden heffst an dynen hilgen hovede und gansem licham menniger leyewis und bidde dy vorbarme dy myner und lat my to hulpe komme dyn hilge bitter lydent in alle mynen noden besunderken in myner lesten stunde…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 13v–14r. 45 Domine Iheus Christe offero tibi omnium penalitatum dolores capitis et membrorum tuorum pro me vivis et defunctis in remissionem omni peccatorum a pena et culpa ob cuius penalitatem…animae mee racionem memoriam et intellectum ad te eleves illuminando lumine tue divine noticie animam corpus et sensus custodi ab omnibus nocuiis infirmitatibus a lesione plaga maloque eventu a diaboli laqueis et potestatis et omnibus malis animae et corporis ut merear te deum meum capaciter intelligere veraciter agnoscere iugiter sentire super omnia amare et me ipsam congnoscere [sic] proxima et inimicos diligere pro persequentibus exorare ad te semper anhelare tibique cum sanitate et vite nunc et in perpetuum amen. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 69, p. 12r–13r. 46 Manuscript 60 begins: Ick unwerdige und boshafftige creatura, p. 3r, while Hs 30 ends its prayer with: O leve here Ihesu Christe Ick arme sunderynne dancke dy…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 13v. In manuscript 69 the final prayer begins: O piissima virgo Maria ego indigna peccatrix coram te anima et corpore prostrata humiliter peto…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 69, p. 15v. 47 Grote unde koste de bedroveden moder godes und bidde se dat se dy wille to hulpe unde to troste komen in alle dynen noden besunderken in dyner lesten stunde und sprick de anthiphonem Salve regina edder eyn ander wat dy haget orate pro scriptrice. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 60, 25r–v. 48 Wel mynsche ave dotlike sunde is unde sprik dusse dre pater noster de vordevet alle daghe seventeyn hundert daghe afflatus und we se lest eyn jar umme de vor loset ses und twndich sele to syner sele…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 60, p. 25v–26r. The presence of several mistakes that have been crossed or rubbed out may indicate that the nun composed this portion of the memorial herself. 49 Dat erst pater noster sprek ik leve here in de dechtnisse des gnades des du gingest to dyner bitteren marter und bidde dy dat dyn bitter doth und dyn unschuldighe lydent an mik unde in alle mynschen nummer werde vorloren Pater noster Dat ander pater noster sprek ik alle den aderen de ore blodt gotten uthe der mynscheit unses heren Ihesu Christe und bidde dy leve here dat dat unschuldighe blot an myk und alle[crossed out] an allen mynschen nummer werde vorloren pater noster Dat dridde pater noster sprek ik den ende den in leve here nemest uthe dyner hilghen mynscheit und bidde dik de dat de unschuldige ende an myck und allen mynschen unde selen nummer vorloren en [sic] werde Amen. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 60, 26r–27r. 50 The difference in the hand for the Pater nosters makes it possible that a different nun added the final Pater nosters; if so, one would have to speak of the purposes and intent of the scribes. 51 O piissima virgo maria offero tibi hanc coronam spineam et peto ut…filio tuo ut per te sit ei acceptabile obsequium meum exiguum…Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 69, 13v–14r. 52 O clementissime mater misere mei propter compassionem matrem corde succurrendo animae mee et asta suscipiendo eam in hora morti filio tuo praesentando et pulsa aures eius pro anima mea et pro animabus parentum fratrum et sororum ac consanguineorum meorum defunctorum ut concedat eis et nobis cum electis suis eternaliter se una tecum contemplare et laudare in saecula saeculorum amen. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 69, p. 14v–15r. 53 According to legend, saint Erasmus, alternately Elmo, Ermo or Erarmo, died in 303 during the persecutions of Diocletian. He was especially venerated in France and Germany for his intercessory powers. Erasmus, or Elmo, is the patron saint of sailors; he was also invoked against colic in children, cramps, and the pain of women in labour. His efficacy in curing women’s labour pains may have made him a saint familiar to many women. Helen White, Tudor books of saints and martyrs (Madison, 1963). 54 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 69, p. 15v–16r. 55 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 69, p. 16r. 56 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 31, p. 14v. 57 The prayer reads: O Maria eyn moder der barmherticheit eyn vath vul aller gnade eyn kosterynne aller bedroneden Ick dancke und vormane dy des lydendes und droffnisse du dynes leven kyndes halven gehat heffst besunderken der dre und druttich dusent und negen hundert tranen de du in der synes bitteren lydendes vorgotest Ick bidde dy du my dorch de krane ock willest vorwarnen by dynen alder levesten kynde Ick myne sunde und mysdach[t?] moge myt eynen rusamige herte bewenen und myn levent beteren so dat ik by ome ewichliken mote bliven syn vrolike sangesichte myt dyn und allen leven utervelden sunderende to beschon wende Amen. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 31, p. 14v–15v. 58 The manuscript reads: Van unser leven vrowven O du konnigynne des hymmels vrouwe dy All[elui]a Wente den du heffst gedragen All[elui]a De is upgestan All[elui]a Bide god vor uns All[elui]a. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 16r. The antiphons for laud are: Regina coeli, laetare, alleluia, Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia, Resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia, Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia. The versicle and response are omitted. 59 Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift, 31, p. 17v. 60 Grote de moder sunte Annem O hilge moder sunte Anna helpt sulff drude Bidde vor my und vor alle myne frunde myt alle dynen…und in myner lesten stunde Amen. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Handschrift 31, p. 18r. 61 The Anna Selbstdritt, which depicts Anne, Mary, and Christ in progressively smaller size, appears most often in pictorial and statuary form from the fourteenth century onward. Frequently, the figures are depicted as seated, with Mary on Anne’s lap and the Christ child on Mary’s lap. 62 While the narrative and vocabulary of both works is very close, variant spellings often appear. Prayer books from the Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek in Darmstadt reveal that the majority were not held in the library of the convent but were the possessions of individual nuns, whose names often appear without reference to the monastic house of which they were a part. Achten, Gebetbuchhandschriften, 10. Such was likely the case at Wienhausen as well. 63 Chronik und Totenbuch, XLIII, XLVIII, LXIV. The specific dates of the donations by Joachim Wisenhauer and his wife and Conrad Eyken are not recorded. These examples likely date to the beginning of the sixteenth century, but they may indicate established trends in making bequests. 64 The necrology of Wienhausen names 27 people by whom a total of approximately 80 books were donated. The majority of these gifts date to the years after the internal reform of the convent, which occurred in 1469. The majority of books were donated by clerics. Although a few titles are mentioned, Dornenkron never appears among them. Chronik und Totenbuch; Heiko Leerhoff, ‘Wienhausen’, in: Germania Benedictina, vol. 12, Die Männer und Frauenklöster in Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein, und Hamburg, ed. Ulrich Faust (St Ottilien, 1994), 775–776. 65 Arrangements for providing confessors and priests for the convent as well as agreements for their provisions and payment neglect to mention where the convent looked to find these men. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Urkunden 493, 495. Documents of presentation for different priests similarly mention the priest only by name, failing to record either their previous employment or location. Only once does a confessor appear from the neighbouring town of Celle. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Urkunde 505 (AD 1473). 66 Loccum, located in the diocese of Minden, now stands within the city limits of Hanover. (Wienhausen belonged to the diocese of Hildesheim.) The monastery of Michaelstein is located 5 km north-west of Blankenburg in the region of Saxon-Anhalt. Joseph Marie Canivez, Statuta capitulorum generalium ordinis Cisterciensis ab anno 1116 ad annum 1786 (Louvain, 1934), vol. 2, 283; Leerhoff, ‘Wienhausen’, 758. 67 It is likely that Wienhausen fell into the group of Cistercian nunneries that lacked iure pleno incorporation but followed Cistercian customs under the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop. Leerhoff, ‘Wienhausen’, 758; Ida-Christine Riggert, Die Lüneburger Frauenklöster (Hanover, 1996), 56. 68 Bynum, Holy feast, 254; Caroline Walker Bynum, ‘Franciscan spirituality: two approaches’, Medievalia et humanistica, (1976), 195–197. 69 Indeed, Busch declared that the anonymous Epistola de vita et passione Domini nostri Ihesu Christi was one of the most esteemed texts among those composed and used for daily meditative devotion by the regular canons of Windesheim. Marrow, Passion iconography, 20–21. 70 The majority from the Hessian Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek in Darmstadt date between 1480 and 1525. Achten, Gebetbuchhandschriften. 71 Prayer books of the later fifteenth century insert meditations in the form of crowns and rosaries in place of the daily hours (Tagzeiten) typical in centuries prior. Such meditational and prayer books, Andacht- und Gebetbücher, represent the evolution of the Low German prayer book from the influential work of Geert Groote and the devotio moderna. Such prayer books evolved particularly in newly founded or reformed Augustinian and Franciscan female houses. Achten, Gebetbuchhandschriften, 15. 72 In the prayer books listed by Gerard Achten and Hermann Knaus in Deutsche und Niederländische Gebetbuchhandschriften der Hessischen Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt almost all come from female houses of the Augustinian and Franciscan order, primarily the Franciscan house of Sonsbeck, the Augustinian convent of St Maria Magdalena or Weiße Frauen in Cologne, or St Caecilia in Cologne, a community of Augustinian canonesses. 73 Presumably, the nuns of Derneburg were responsible for teaching correct Cistercian practices to the community of Wienhausen. It is interesting to note, however, that Derneburg had initially mounted even greater opposition to Busch’s reforms. In this case, the convent and its lay supporters actually succeeded in forcing Busch to leave. During the reform, many of the nuns were redistributed to other houses, where they were forced to become Cistercians, and Derneburg was converted into a Cistercian priory under the influence of the bishop of Hildesheim and the abbot of Marienrode through the imposition of a new Cistercian abbess. In the estimation of Eileen Power, the ‘nuns of Derneburg were never effectually reformed’. In fact, Power states that Derneburg was Busch’s only ‘real failure…[T]his house withstood both his efforts…and those of the Cistercian abbot of Marienrode’. One is left to wonder what their influence upon the convent of Wienhausen actually was. Eileen Power, Medieval English nunneries (Cambridge, 1922), 680, 684; Busch, Liber de reformatione, 591–597 and 629–635. 74 Busch records: Ad rogatum ergo patrum abbatum prefatorum procuravi eis ordinis sui collectarium a venerabili patre Hennigo abbate in monasterio Marienrode eiusdem ordinis prope Hildensem statim excribendum, ut seculari cantu pretermisso cantum ordinis sui possent assumere et ordini suo cisterciensi in omnibus successive se conformare. Busch, Liber de reformatione, 634. 75 Sie hat auch zu Gottes Ehren viele Bücher bey das Kloster gebracht, deren etliche von den Brüdern in Hilden, etliche in Zell etliche von ihren Jungfrauen im Kloster sind geschrieben worden. It is unclear if the nuns referred to come from Derneburg or Wienhausen. Chronik und Totenbuch, 26. 76 Noch viel andere Bücher so woll des Tages als des Nachts, so woll vor gesunde als vor kranke zu gebrauchen. Chronik und Totenbuch, 27–28. It is unclear if the two Gertruds mentioned refer to the same woman, i.e. Gertrud Bungen. No Gertrud Bungen appears in the convent necrology. 77 Nulla sororum presumat sub gravis discipline pena aliquas peculiares legere oraciones ac habere castigaciones abstinentias vigilias seu qualescunque alias exercere singularitates nisi hiis examinatis debite abbatissa duxerit admittendas Nec permitti debent libelli privatarum orationum ac meditationum singularium antequam per nos ac aliquem nostrum seu alium fide dignum cui duxerimus committendum approbentur et examinentur. Wienhausen, Klosterarchiv, Urkunde 554, (July 7, 1483). 78 Achten assumes the influence of Dominicans as reading masters and father confessors in influencing the development of the fifteenth-century prayer book. Achten, Gebetbuchhandschriften, 15. 79 Art historians date the images of the Veronica to ca. 1500; papier-mâché medallions of Christ as the Man of Sorrows date similarly between 1450 and 1500. Horst Appuhn, Der Fund vom Nonnenchor (Hamburg, 1973), 21, 38, 40–41. 80 Horst Appuhn, ‘Der Auferstandene und das heilige Blut zur Wienhausen’, Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte, 1, 1961, 90.
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