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2 results

  • Chapter 5 - Syon Abbey and the Birgittines

  • from II - Circles and Communities in England
  • Edited by Corinne Saunders, Durham University, Diane Watt, University of Surrey
  • Book:
    Women and Medieval Literary Culture
    Published online:
    28 July 2023
    Print publication:
    17 August 2023, pp 104-123

  • Summary

    The rich textual history of Syon Abbey, the only English house of St Birgitta of Swedenߣs Order of St Saviour, is the focus of this essay. Although there is limited evidence of English Bridgettine nuns authoring their own texts, St Birgitta, Syon Abbey, and its community of nuns as well as monks had profound and multiple influences on womenߣs literary culture in fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century England. While the significance of Syon within the late medieval English cultural landscape cannot be overemphasised, its (textual) community is also representative of the intricacies of womenߣs literary culture. Syon women, including as well as superiors aristocratic lay women with close ties to the abbey, were engaged in the commissioning of texts. The Syon community, led by Abbess Elizabeth Gibbs, was quick to exploit the new technology of printing, and also supported by the patronage of wealthy noble women, such as Lady Margaret Beaufort. However, the textuality of the abbey expanded beyond these powerful women to include the wider community of Syon nuns, and beyond England into continental Europe.

  • 22 - Church and clergy

  • from PART VI - LATE MEDIEVAL SOCIETY (c. 1350–1520)
  • Edited by Knut Helle, Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Scandinavia
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    04 September 2003, pp 653-676

  • Summary

    The beginning as well as the end of the period 1350-1520 is marked by historical events of considerable significance in Scandinavian church history. The demographic effects of the plague epidemics led to general loss of population which reduced the size of congregations and caused a shortage of clerics, leading to incorporations and annexations of parishes. In the period from the great plague to the mid-fifteenth century donations of land to the Church increased considerably, both as pious gifts and in return for perpetual masses, revealing a religious spirit of generosity as well as fear for the dies irae and the life to come. St Birgitta was strongly influenced by her membership of the Swedish high nobility and her spiritual background in the Swedish church. For the whole papal schism the Nordic churches remained in the Roman obedience. During most of the late Middle Ages their relationship with the papacy also interacted closely with their ties to the royal power.