Skip to content
1882
Volume 12, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2034-3515
  • E-ISSN: 2034-3523

Abstract

Textual and archaeological evidence show that in medieval monasteries keys signified status and responsibility, mediated spatial boundaries, and featured in rituals that defined communal life. Both a functional domestic object and a powerful symbol of revelation, penance, and chastity, the key moved easily between the physical and spiritual realms, serving as a conduit for divine power and a prop in the theatre of monastic virtue. A closer look at the key as object and symbol offers a new means of unlocking monastic concerns with poverty and enclosure, as revealed in rules, customaries, and hagiography. More broadly, this study calls attention to the distinctively exegetical nature of medieval monastic material culture, in which even seemingly mundane objects were potential vessels for the sacred.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1484/J.JMMS.5.135310
2023-01-01
2025-12-12

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Manuscripts and Archival Sources
    London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C iv
  2. ———, MS Sloane 2435
  3. ———, MS Stowe 944
  4. Providence, RI, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, St Peter, limestone with traces of gesso and polychromy, Burgundian, c. 1106–1112, accession number 20.254
  5. Primary Sources
    Acta S. Brigidae abbatissae Kildarensis, in Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae ex codice Salmanticensi, ed. by Charles de Smedt (Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons, 1888), 1–76
  6. Adgar, Le gracial, ed. by Pierre Kunstmann (Ottawa: Editions de l’Université d’Ottawa, 1982)
  7. Augustine, Enarrationes in psalmos I–L, ed. by E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 38 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1956)
  8. ———, Sermo 149, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 38  (Paris: Garnier, 1845), cols 800–07
  9. Aurelian of Arles, Regulae, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 80 (Paris: Garnier, 1850), cols 387–404
  10. Benedict of Aniane, Concordia Regularum, ed. by Pierre Bonnerue, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 168A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999)
  11. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sententiae, in Sancti Bernardi Opera, vi, 2: Sermones III, ed. by Jean Leclercq and Henri Rochais (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1972); trans. by Michael Casey and Francis R. Swietek as The Parables & The Sentences (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000)
  12. Bernard of Cluny, Ordo Cluniacensis sive consuetudines, in Vetus disciplina monastica, ed. by Marquard Hergott (Paris: C. Osmont, 1726), pp. 136–364
  13. The Book of St Gilbert, ed. by Raymonde Foreville and Gillian Keir (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987)
  14. Caesarius of Arles, Regula virginum, ed. by Adalbert de Vogüé and Joël Courreau, Sources chrétiennes, 345 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1988)
  15. Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus miraculorum, ed. by Joseph Strange, 2 vols (Cologne: H. Lempertz, 1851); trans. by H. von E. Scott and C. C. Swinton Bland as The Dialogue on Miracles, 2 vols (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1929)
  16. The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, Monk of St Edmundsbury, ed. and trans. by L. C. Jane (London: Chatto & Windus, 1925)
  17. Epistolae Cantuarienses, ed. by William Stubbs, Rolls Series, 38, 2 (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865)
  18. Geoffrey Grossus, Vita Bernardi Tironensis, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 172 (Paris: Garnier, 1854), cols 1363–1446
  19. Gesta abbatum monasterii sancti Albani, ed. by Henry Thomas Riley, Rolls Series, 28–30, 3 vols (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867–79)
  20. Glossa Ordinaria, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 2 vols, 113–114 (Paris: Garnier, 1852)
  21. Gonzalo de Berceo and the Latin Miracles of the Virgin: A Translation and a Study, ed. and trans. by Patricia Timmons and Robert Boenig (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012)
  22. Guibert of Nogent, Monodiae, ed. by E.-R. Labande as Autobiographie (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1981)
  23. Haimo of Auxerre, Commentariorum in Isaiam libri tres, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 116 (Paris: Garnier, 1852), cols 713–1086
  24. Hilary of Poitiers, Commentarius in Matthaeum, ed. by Jean Doignon, Sources chrétiennes, 258 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1979)
  25. Hildemar of Corbie, Commentary on the Rule of Benedict, The Hildemar Project, ed. and trans. by Albrecht Diem and others, available at <http://hildemar.org>
  26. Honorius Augustodunensis, Sigillum Beatae Mariae, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 172 (Paris: Garnier, 1854), cols 495–518
  27. Irimbert of Admont, De incendio monasterii sui, ed. by Christina Lutter, in Geschlecht und Wissen, Norm und Praxis, Lesen und Schreiben: Monastische Reformgemeinschaften im 12. Jahrhundert (Vienna: Oldenbourg, 2005), pp. 222–25
  28. Jerome, Homilia in Lucam, de Lazaro et divite, in Tractatus sive homiliae in psalmos, In Marci evangelium, alia varia argumenta, ed. by G. Morin, B. Capelle, and J. Fraipont, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 78 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1958)
  29. The Letter Collection of Peter Abelard and Heloise, ed. by David Luscombe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
  30. The Life of Christina of Marykate, trans. by C. H. Talbot, Samuel Fanous, and Henrietta Leyser (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
  31. The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, 2nd edn, ed. by David Knowles and Christopher N. L. Brooke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002)
  32. The Observances in Use at the Augustinian Priory of S. Giles and S. Andrew at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, ed. by John Willis Clark (Cambridge: Macmillan and Bowes, 1897)
  33. Peter the Venerable, De miraculis libri duo, ed. by Denise Bouthillier, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 83 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1988)
  34. Rudolf of Fulda, Vita Leobae abbatissae Biscofesheimensis, ed. by Georg Waitz in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, 15. 1, ed. by George Waitz and Wilhelm Wattenbach (Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1887), pp. 118–31
  35. La Règle du Maître, ed. by Adalbert de Vogüé, Sources chrétiennes, 105–106, 2 vols (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1964)
  36. The Rule of St Benedict, ed. by Timothy Fry (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1981)
  37. Stephen of Lisiac, Regula venerabilis viri Stephani Muretensis, in Scriptores ordinis Grandimontensis, ed. by Jean Becquet, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968)
  38. ‘Texts of Jocelyn of Canterbury which Relate to the History of Barking Abbey’, ed. by M. L. Colker, Studia Monastica, 7 (1965), 383–460
  39. Ulrich of Cluny, Consuetudines cluniacenses, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 149 (Paris: Garnier, 1853), cols 643–779
  40. Vita S. Geraldi Silvae Majoris, ed. by Lucas d’Achery and Jean Mabillon in Acta Sanctorum ordinis Sancti Benedicti, 9 vols (Paris: 1668–1701), ii (1669), pp. 841–63
  41. Vita S. Maximini abbatis Miciacensis, ed. by Lucas d’Achery and Jean Mabillon in Acta Sanctorum ordinis Sancti Benedicti, 9 vols (Paris: 1668–1701), i (1668), pp. 580–91
  42. Vita S. Stephani Obazinensis, ed. by Michel Aubrun (Clermont-Ferrand: Université de Clermont-Ferrand Institut d’études du Massif central, 1970)
  43. William of Hirsau, Constitutiones Hirsaugienses, ed. by Candida Elvert and Pius Engelbert, Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum, 15, 2 vols (Siegburg: Schmitt, 2010)
  44. William of Malmesbury, Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. by Rodney M. Thomson and Michael Winterbottom (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2015)
  45. Secondary Works
    Atkins, Rob, and Elizabeth Popescu, ‘Excavations at the Hospital of St Mary Magdalen, Partney, Lincolnshire, 2003’, Medieval Archaeology, 54 (2010), 204–70
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Barrière, Bernadette, ‘The Cistercian Convent of Coyroux in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, Gesta, 31 (1992), 7682
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Beach, Alison, Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
  48. Berman, Constance Hoffman, The White Nuns: Cistercian Abbeys for Women in Medieval France (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018)
  49. Bonde, Sheila, and Clark Maines, eds, Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in Soissons: Approaches to Its Architecture, Archaeology and History (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003)
  50. Brown, Bill, Other Things (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016)
  51. Bruce, Scott G., Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition, c. 900–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)
  52. Bynum, Caroline Walker, Dissimilar Similitudes: Devotional Objects in Late Medieval Europe (New York: Zone, 2020)
  53. Carruthers, Mary, The Book of Memory, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  54. Clark, James G., The Benedictines in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2011)
  55. Couzin, Robert, The Traditio Legis: Anatomy of an Image (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015)
  56. Du Cange, Charles du Fresne and others, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, 10 vols (Niort: La Favre, 1883–87)
  57. Dyson, T., M. Samuel, A. Steele, and S. M. Wright, eds, The Cluniac Priory and Abbey of St Saviour, Bermondsey, Surrey: Excavations of 1984–1995 (London: Museum of London, 2011)
  58. Egan, Geoff, ‘Security Equipment’, in The Medieval Household: Daily Living c. 1150–c. 1450 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2010), pp. 88–122
  59. Elkins, Sharon K., Holy Women of Twelfth-Century England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988)
  60. Elliott, Gillian B., Sculpted Thresholds and the Liturgy of Transformation in Medieval Lombardy (New York: Routledge, 2022)
  61. Evans, G. R., The Language and Logic of the Bible: The Earlier Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)
  62. Gilchrist, Roberta, and Cheryl Green, eds, Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeological Excavations, 1904–1979 (London: Society of Antiquaries, 2015)
  63. Gilchrist, Roberta, and Barney Sloane, Requiem: The Medieval Monastic Cemetery in Britain (London: Museum of London Archaeology Service, 2005)
  64. Ginther, James R., ‘Monastic Ideals and Episcopal Visitations: The Sermo ad religiosos of Robert Grosseteste,’ in Medieval Monastic Preaching, ed. by Carolyn A. Muessig (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 31–53
  65. Goodall, Ian H., ‘Locks and Keys’, in Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester, ed. by Martin Biddle, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), ii, pp. 1001–36
  66. Griffiths, Fiona, Nuns’ Priests’ Tales: Men and Salvation in Medieval Women’s Monastic Life (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018)
  67. Hahn, Cynthia, Passion Relics and the Medieval Imagination (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020)
  68. Hamling, Tara, and Catherine Richardson, eds, Everyday Objects: Medieval and Modern Material Culture and its Meanings (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010)
  69. Hare, J. N., Battle Abbey: The Eastern Range and the Excavations of 1978–80 (London: Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, 1985)
  70. Johnson, Penelope D., Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994)
  71. Kinder, Terryl N., Cistercian Europe: Architecture of Contemplation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002)
  72. Knappett, Carl, An Archaeology of Interaction: Network Perspectives on Material Culture and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)
  73. Kotrosits, Maia, The Lives of Objects: Material Culture, Experience and the Real in the History of Early Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020)
  74. Latour, Bruno, ‘The Berlin Key’, trans. by Lydia Davis, in Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture, ed. by P. M. Graves-Brown (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 10–21
  75. ———, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
  76. Lester, Anne E., ‘What Remains: Women, Relics and Remembrance in the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade,Journal of Medieval History, 40 (2014), 311–28
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Makowski, Elizabeth M., English Nuns and the Law in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2011)
  78. Mecham, June, Sacred Communities, Shared Devotions: Gender, Material Culture, and Monasticism in Late Medieval Germany, ed. by Alison I. Beach, Constance H. Berman, and Lisa M. Bitel (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014)
  79. Meyvaert, Paul, ‘The Medieval Monastic Garden’, in Medieval Gardens, ed. by Elisabeth B. MacDougall (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1986), pp. 23–54
  80. Miller, Sarah Alison, Medieval Monstrosity and the Female Body (London: Taylor & Francis, 2010)
  81. Mora, María José, ‘The Power of the Keys: A Parallel to the Line Drawings in BL MS Stowe 944’, Selim, 3 (1993), 5771
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Oliva, Marilyn, ‘Nuns at Home: The Domesticity of Sacred Space’, in Medieval Domesticity: Home, Housing and Household in Medieval England, ed. by Maryanne Kowalewski and P. J. P. Goldberg (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 145–61
  83. Pennell, Sara, ‘Mundane Materiality, or, Should Small Things Be Forgotten? Material Culture, Micro-histories and the Problem of Scale’, in History and Material Culture: A Student’s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources, ed. by Karen Harvey (New York: Routledge, 2018), pp. 221–39
  84. Poleg, Eyal, Approaching the Bible in Medieval England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013)
  85. Salih, Sarah, ‘At Home; Out of the House’, in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women’s Writing, ed. by Carolyn Dinshaw and David Wallace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 124–40
  86. Smith, Julie Ann, Ordering Women’s Lives: Penitentials and Early Nunnery Rules in the Early Medieval West (Farnham: Ashgate, 2001)
  87. Tierney, Brian, Origins of Papal Infallibility, 1150–1300, 2nd edn (Leiden: Brill, 2022)
  88. Williamson, Beth, ‘Material Culture and Medieval Christianity’, in The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity, ed. by John H. Arnold (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 60–75
/content/journals/10.1484/J.JMMS.5.135310
Loading
/content/journals/10.1484/J.JMMS.5.135310
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): customaries; enclosure; keys; locks; material culture; monastic rules
This is a required field.
Please enter a valid email address.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An error occurred.
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error:
Please enter a valid_number test
aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnJlcG9sc29ubGluZS5uZXQv