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Article

French

ID: <

10670/1.t57ogt

>

Where these data come from
‘ibVade in pace’/ib. The literary and historical wealth of the monastic prison in the Middle Ages in span class = “petitecap” bXX’supbe’/supb century

Abstract

Despite clear historical evidence, until recently the historians of monasticism failed to mention the existence of monastic prisons. Nevertheless, they were not forgotten, as we learn from the dark legend of Vade in Pace or In Pace (“Go in peace”). From the 15th century, this term referred to the dark squalid dungeons in which monks and nuns guilty of some offence were locked up for life. This article aims to trace some of the stages of this historical “meta-narrative”, which is made up of successive sedimentations over a period running from the 15th to the end of the 18th century, before becoming fossilized in the 19th century. It especially highlights the decisive role played by the Maurist Jean Mabillon and his Reflections on the Prisons of the Religious Orders (1724) which put the Vade in Pace into an historical context. Then the article examines the way the Vade in Pace which had become a symbol of the despotism of the monks was reinterpreted by the Enlightenment, Revolutionary Theatre, the Romantic Movement, Penal Science and the writings of the historians in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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