The Privilege of Poverty: Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, and the Struggle for a Franciscan Rule for Women

193 Pages·2006·1.06 MB·English

by  Joan Mueller

The Privilege
Clare of Assisi, A gnes oof Pfra gPue,o anvd tehe rty
Struggle for a Franciscan Rule for Women
joan mueller
The Privilege of Poverty
Image not available
The Privilege
Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague,
oandf t hPe Sotruvggele frort a yFranciscan
Rule for Women
Joan Mueller
The Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, Pennsylvania
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mueller, Joan, 1956­–
The privilege of poverty : Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, and
the struggle for a Franciscan rule for women / Joan Mueller.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn 0-271-02893-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Poor Clares—History.
2. Clare, of Assisi, Saint, 1194–1253.
3. Agnes, Princess of Bohemia, 1205–1282.
I. Title.
BX436­2.M84 2006­
271’.973—dc22
2006­003211
Copyright © 2006­ The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16­802-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Associa-
tion of American University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use
acid-free paper. This book is printed on Natures Natural, containing
50% post-consumer waste, and meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Perma-
nence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ansi z39.48–1992.
frontispiece: The Tavola of Saint Clare (1283), an altarpiece by the
“Maestro of Saint Clare.” Clare is at the center with surrounding
episodes from her life, sequenced from bottom left to bottom right.
The Tavola is housed at the Basilica of S. Chiara in Assisi. (Courtesy
of Tau-AV Produktion, photo by Bruno Fäh)
Contents

  vi
List of Illustrations
  viii
Preface
Clare: The Beginnings
   introduction  1
The Privilege of Having Nothing
  one    7
Agnes of Prague
  two    33
Agnes’s Privilege of Poverty
 three    53
Innocent IV
 four    73
The Rule of Saint Clare
  five    89

  si x   Agnes of Prague After C la1r0e5’s Death
   epilogue:
  125
  129
Notes
  164
Selected Bibliography
  178
Index
List of Illustrations
1. “The Privilege of Poverty” is an official letter from Gregory
IX to Clare and her sisters giving them the privilege not to be
forced to own property. (Courtesy of the Protomonastero of S.
Chiara in Assisi, Italy) 5
2. Scenes from the Tavola of Saint Clare (1283). (Courtesy of
Tau-AV Produktion, photo by Bruno Fäh)
a. Bishop Guido of Assisi hands Clare the palm of martyrdom
before Clare escapes her family home. 10
b. Clare is welcomed by Francis and his brothers at S. Maria
degli Angeli in the valley of Assisi. 10
c. Clare, having laid aside her dress, dons the rough tunic of
a penitent. 11
d. Clare grabs the altar cloth of the Church of S. Paolo of the
Abbesses, while the knights of her family try to force her to
return home. 11
3. The Monastery of S. Damiano of Assisi was a small abandoned
country church that Francis rebuilt in 1206­. After Clare’s con-
version, Francis and his brothers remodeled it into a monas-
tery for Clare and her sisters.
a. The front of the monastery. (Courtesy of Casa Editrice
Francescana—Assisi) 14
b. View of the monastery garden and cloister walk. (Courtesy
of Marianne Noser) 15
4. Clare and her sisters mourn the death of Saint Francis. From
the frescoes of GiottoL (isatt otrf iIblluustteradt iotnos) in the Upper Basilica of
S. Francesco, Assisi. (Courtesy of Casa Editrice Francescana—
Assisi) 30
5. Stone image of Agnes of Prague on a capital located above the
former altar in the Church of Saint Savior in Prague, the mau-
soleum church for the royal family. (Courtesy of the National
Gallery in Prague) 57
6­. Miniature of Saint Agnes of Prague, circa 1270, praying to the
virgin martyr, Saint Agnes of Rome, who holds the palm of
martyrdom. The image is found in the Osek Lectionary housed
in the National Library of the Czech Republic. (Courtesy of
Národní Knihovna České Republiky in Prague) 58
7. Scenes from the Tavola of Saint Clare (1283). (Courtesy of
Tau-AV Produktion, photo by Bruno Fäh)
a. Catherine of Assisi joins her sister, Clare, who is staying at
the small monastery of S. Angelo of Panzo while awaiting
the completion of the Monastery of S. Damiano. 6­0
b. In the refectory of S. Damiano, Clare blesses and multiplies
bread for her sisters. 77
c. Mary, the Mother of God, accompanied by virgins, visits
and comforts Clare on her deathbed. 122
d. Pope Innocent IV accompanied by church dignitaries
and Franciscan friars celebrate the funeral of Saint
Clare. 123
8. Agnes of Prague’s limestone funerary monument was placed in
the burial niche in the south wall of the Chapel of the Virgin
Mary in Agnes’s monastery of Prague. (Copyright © 2004 Na-
tional Gallery in Prague) 126­
vii
Preface
Both men and women followed Saint Francis of Assisi. Yet, when
reading histories of the early Franciscan movement, one cannot
help but wonder, Where are the women? To put it simply, the
common perception of early Franciscan women is that they were
enclosed in the silence of their spiritually rich but historically in-
consequential lives. For years, most scholars simply glossed over
women. When feminist theorists came along, they fell into a dif-
ferent trap. They claimed that a male-dominated church arm-wres-
tled these women into cloistered silence. I have studied the sources
for years, and I found myself increasingly discontented with both
these approaches. Dissatisfaction, however, proves nothing. While
it is true that documenting the history of the Franciscan Order is
no longer credible if it ignores women, it would be a great mistake
to conclude that the only way forward is to completely discard the
work of eminent historians. There is no need to throw away the
wine with the wineskins. Franciscan history can be engendered
without leaving it in ruins. One reason for this is the simple fact
that an antimale interpretation is as problematic to the sources as
a male-only account.
While there is evidence to suggest that thirteenth-century
women were progressively bullied into silence by their male coun-
terparts, the lives and literature of the women reveal staunch lead-
ers who affected policies and had a firm and even biblical sense of
their female identity. Clare and Agnes were practical and astute
women who not only knew hoPwre ftahcee political game was played but
also played the game well. Some may not like the image of a politi-
cally adroit Clare, this is the image that the sources paint of her.
The same goes for Agnes. In fact, given what we now know about
Clare and Agnes, we have no choice but to revise our picture of
early Franciscan women as silent and inconsequential.
Although there are reams of valuable source material docu-
menting the lives of early Franciscan women, the bulk of this lit-
erature survives in the Latin legalese of canonical, political, and
civil documents. Some documents exist, many are lost; many
are dated, some are not. Published sources are scattered among
hard-to-find ecclesiastical and political collections. These collec-
tions require the historian to enter into the complex world of thir-
teenth-century politics. Franciscan historians have generally paid
scant attention to the politics of this age—something that Francis,
Clare, and most everyone else in the thirteenth century would
have found incomprehensible.
In the end, it was the sources themselves that provided an ap-
propriate methodology for this text. When Agnes became over-
whelmed by numerous political issues, Clare admonished her to
focus on “the one thing necessary.” This one thing necessary was
the attainment of the so-called privilege of poverty—a papal ex-
emption that guaranteed the right to refuse landed endowments.
Remaining unendowed kept the sisters of Clare’s and Agnes’s
monasteries faithful to Francis’s lifestyle of radical poverty. It is
the history and spirituality of this “privilege of poverty” that will
drive and structure this story.
A project this complex involves the expertise of many diligent
colleagues. Special mention must be made of the medieval Lati-
nist Paige McDonald, of The Catholic University of America, who
translated hundreds of canonical documents in preparation for
this text, and Maria Teresa Maenza, Ph.D., of Creighton Universi-
ty, who supplied the Umbrian translation of Clare’s Process of Can-
onization used in this text. Other linguists who made invaluable
contributions are Andreas Gommermann; Sister Dolorosa Krem-
lacik, ND; Sister Ludmila Pospíšilová, OSF; Father Reginald Fos-
ter, OCD; and Vanda Bocanová. The translations of Clare’s letters
are my own. I am grateful to Sister Christine Stevenson, OSC,
whose faithful and contemporary living of Clare’s dream of giving
all one has to the poor convinces me that discussion concerning
Francis and Clare’s economics remains relevant.
ix