Controlling Space, Disciplining Voice: The Congregation of Windesheim and Fifteenth-Century Monastic Reform in Northern Germany and the Low Countries

Abstract

This dissertation analyses how the Congregation of Windesheim, a highly centralised monastic community paradigmatic of fifteenth-century church reform, endeavoured to implement its ideals concerning liturgical and spiritual practices. Based on various prohibitions towards female houses issued in the 1430s and on a comparative analysis of the roles of canons and canonesses, I show that Windesheim religious women had no equal say in the governance of the Chapter and of their own houses compared to their male counterparts. However, the differences in autonomy reveal not so much a tendency to lessen canonesses’ authorities in their own house, but rather a desire to accommodate the perceived weaker nature of women at that time. The ultimate purpose of the prohibitions was to enable them to maximise their virtue and reach salvation on behalf of everyone on Earth. In a second step, I use the distinction between “place” and “space” as a key concept to scrutinise Windesheim official texts. I show that the control of access to the different rooms, the discipline of bodies down to their smallest gestures, and the production or suppression of sound were essential practices that shaped the spiritual space of the monastery. More generally, controlling space was part of a broader spiritual agenda of regulating bodies to reach unity of the hearts of canons and canonesses. A comparative analysis of processional practices in female reformed houses not only nuances claims to a reformed status, but also reveals the lesser importance of processional movements in Windesheim spirituality as opposed to the pre-eminence of processional chants in actualising processional liturgy. This is a crucial step in our understanding of liturgical, monastic processions and challenges established views according to which space is inevitably the most important element in processing. The analysis of the perceptions and constructions of the singing voice by Windesheim official regulations illustrates that the Congregation did not try to implement an entirely new way of singing. Rather, it reflects broader concerns of fifteenth-century monastic chant performance, and of a larger medieval trend which understood the power of the singing voice to efficiently stimulate devotion, but which warned against obscure renderings of sacred texts. Because singing was so central in Windesheim liturgy, descriptions of singing voices could also be used as a tool to illustrate a member’s path to virtue. This re-evaluates the importance of the quality of singing practices in the Congregation and their verbal descriptions, not just in a Windesheim context but for scholars researching “historically informed” performance practices in general. My investigation leads to two general conclusions. Firstly, in spite of significant differences between canons and canonesses’ daily life, the Chapter of Windesheim sought to ensure equal liturgy and inner devotion for all its religious members. Secondly, the discipline of the bodies, whether in gestures or in sound, reveals an explicit desire to stimulate devotion to the highest extent possible through somatic training. This served the key purpose of Augustinian monastic discipline: the elevation of the heart.