Discourses of Monastic Property and Poverty in 12th-Century Normandy: A Study of Orderic Vitalis, Robert of Torigni, and the Abbey of Le Bec Ghent University
This project aims to examine the fundamental changes in the Benedictines’ views on monastic property and poverty in twelfth-century Normandy. Whereas traditional research attributes these changes exclusively to Cistercian criticism, it will propose a more complex explanation based on the changing nature of episcopal authority, artisocratic politics, monastic networks, and the legal dimension of property.