Understanding Rance : The Spirituality of the Abbot of la Trappe in Context

by Bell, David N.

• ISBN13: 9780879071059
• ISBN10: 0879071052
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-30
• Publisher: Cistercian Pubns

Summary

Both during his lifetime and afterwards Armand Jean le Bouthiellier, the abbe de Rance, was a controversial figure. Alive, he was extravagantly admired by many, yet had, as one recent biographer observed, 'an unhappy genius for incurring hostility unnecessarily'. Dead, he continued to evoke extreme reactions-he was either loved or loathed. One biographer nicknamed him 'the thundering abbot'; others depicted him in hagiographical panegyrics. The present volume sets Rance against the colorful and extravagant world of seventeenth-century France and corrects both masterly and entertaining caricatures by exploring the world which surrounded and formed this ever fascinating monk: the privileged circles of the ancient regime in which Rance moved from his birth in 1626; and the austere monastic environment he created at la Trappe. 'This is not so much a book about Rance as around Rance, Dr Bell writes. 'I do not expect that it will persuade people who do not like Rance to like him; it may, however, serve to explain why he said and did what he said and did in the way that he said and did.'

Author Biography

David N. Bell is Professor of Religious Studies and University Research Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	xv
PART I
Chapter 1 RANCÉ'S BIOGRAPHERS	3	(24)
Chapter 2 RANCÉ'S FRANCE	27	(25)
Chapter 3 RANCÉ'S ORDER	52	(22)
Chapter 4 RANCÉ'S SINS	74	(23)
Chapter 5 RANCÉ'S JOY	97	(24)
Chapter 6 RANCÉ'S READING	121	(24)
Chapter 7 RANCÉ'S ENEMIES	145	(24)
Chapter 8 RANCÉ'S CONVERSION	169	(28)
Chapter 9 RANCÉ'S MONASTICISM	197	(37)
Chapter 10 UNDERSTANDING RANCÉ	234	(19)
PART II BIBLIOGRAPHY
I: Works of Rancé.
I.A.i Printed works
(excluding letters, dubia and spuria)	253	(31)
II.A.ii Unprinted and untraced works	284	(2)
I.B Letters	286	(16)
I.B.i Collections of letters	287	(9)
I.B.ii Single letters	296	(6)
I.C Dubia and spuria	302	(6)
I.D Selections from the works of Rancé	308	(3)
II: Biographies, biographical material, and controversial literature
II.A The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries	311	(23)
II.B The nineteenth and twentieth centuries	334	(16)
II.C Biographies in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other similar compendia	350	(5)
Index	355