Western Monasticism: A History of the Monastic Movement in the Latin Church.

Western Monasticism: A History of the
Monastic Movement in the Latin Church
Peter King
Cistercian Publications, $24.95, 482 pp.

Some years ago in this column I reviewed Karl Frank's Of Greater Liberty (Cistercian Publications), which was advertised as a history of monasticism but which was, in truth, a more general study of religious life (the so-called vita regularis--"life under a rule"). Its topics included not only monks but canons, mendicants, and other groups. It was a good but, of necessity, somewhat sketchy survey. Peter King's book, by contrast, indicates a more precise focus: a history of monasticism in the Latin West. He does not consider the development of the monastic life in the Christian East, a topic deserving a volume in its own right.

King's book begins with the early desert tradition and moves quickly to the penetration of ascetic ideals in the West. He does justice not only to the Benedictine thread of monastic observance but also to the Celtic tradition which had its own ethos. The Middle Ages presents a complex picture if only because, deriving from the reforming impulses of Gregory VII (himself a monk), various experiments developed. It is in this age, from the late eleventh century on, that we get not only the vast network of Cluniac houses, Cistercian reforms, and attempts to combine the eremetic and cenobitic life (for example, the Camaldolese and the Carthusians), but also dual monastic houses of men and women, as well as various other religious orders which had their moment in history. King continues his story in the period after the Reformation (he also discusses Lutheran and other reformed attempts to keep alive a quasi-monastic ideal) and brings his narrative into the twentieth century.

This is, of course, a complex story replete with names, places, and various institutions. In the midst of these factual recitations are narratives of great interest. King has an excellent chapter on monastic women in the High Middle Ages. We learn of the attempt to keep alive the monastic life in tandem with the missionary ideal, first exemplified by the early medieval monks and renewed in modern times. Regarding that latter task, he touches on the expansion of monasticism in Africa. I was disappointed that he did not discuss the inculturated attempts to develop monasticism in India by such adventurous persons as Bede Griffiths and Henri LeSaux. King also treats the tension in the early modern period between the monastic life devoted to scholarship (for example, the Maurists) and other forms of monasticism centered on penance and contemplation. King gives a brisk account of monasticism in relation to Jansenism and has a fine chronicle of the romantic impulses that led Dom Gueranger to found Solesmes in the nineteenth century after buying an abbey with his own funds. He is also quite fair in his consideration of the impact of German Benedictines on the development of American church life in general and the Benedictine presence in particular.

King tells us that his research was done in Scotland with the books available to him, so keen students of the monastic life will be disappointed by his somewhat pedestrian bibliography. The book does have a decent index. Those interested in this crucial strand of the Catholic experience will find the book a valuable addition to their personal libraries while teachers may find it useful as a resource for their classes in church history. King is a clear writer who has managed to put a vast amount of material into one volume. A well-published scholar on matters monastic, he directs his survey with a sure hand.