Content area
Full Text
Clare of Assisi and the Thirteenth Century Church: Religious Women, Rules, and Resistance. By Catherine M. Mooney. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. 312 pp. $65.00 cloth.
Catherine M. Mooney's study is researched, well-written, and responsibly balanced—an indispensable guide enabling a reader to navigate this turning point of the religious life of women. Mooney's work approaches the writings by, to, and about Clare chronologically. The importance of this approach becomes obvious in light of the important role of Cardinal Hugo and his successors as protectors of Francis, Clare, and their followers—especially the more vulnerable women. The author's sensitivity to the grammatical fine points and easily overlooked nuances gives evidence of the objectivity and respect of a true scholar.
Chapter 1 is devoted to Clare's conversion and childhood from 1193 to 1211 and underscores the discrepancies in the Acts of the Process, the Legend of Saint Clare, and the Verified Legend. Mooney reserves judgment on these documents since each has its own peculiar difficulties requiring critical editions, particularly the Legend, whose authorship continues to be debated. Mooney navigates the “temporal, social, and geographic” details of Clare's early life in ways making the reader comfortable with her “peripatetic journey from penitence at home to San Damiano” and her “family dynamics” (14–29).
Chapter 2, “The Early San Damiano: A House of Penitents, 1211 to ca.1216,” introduces controversial materials, such as the forma vivendi, which Clare claimed Francis himself had given to her and her companions, and, more particularly, Jacques de Vitry's 1216 “Witness” letter and its distinction between “Lesser Brothers” and “Lesser Sisters” (30–53). These pages...