Main entry:

Beales, Derek Edward Dawson.

Title & Author:

Prosperity and plunder : European Catholic monasteries in the age of revolution, 1650-1815 / Derek Beales.

Publication:

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Description:

xviii, 395 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 26 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-370) and index.
Introduction -- The Counter-Reformation and the monasteries -- The great monasteries of the German Catholic lands -- France -- Spain and Portugal -- Italy -- The suppression of the Jesuits -- France : the commission des réguliers -- The Austrian monarchy : the Josephist solution -- The Revolution in France -- The impact of the Revolution outside France -- Conclusion.

Summary:

"In the Catholic countries of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Europe, communities of monks and nuns were growing in number and wealth. By 1750 there were at least 25,000 communities containing at least 350,000 inmates. They constructed vast buildings, dominated education and played a large part in the practice and patronage of learning, music and the arts. They also fulfilled an amazing variety of political, economic and social roles, notably in providing career opportunities for women. Yet many accounts of the period ignore them altogether." "Prosperity and Plunder recovers this forgotten dimension of European history, assesses the importance of monasteries across Catholic Europe and compares their position in different countries. It goes on to explain the almost complete destruction of the monasteries between 1750 and 1815 by reforming rulers, 'Enlightenment' and the French Revolution, and asks how much society gained and lost in the process."--BOOK JACKET.

Resources:
Table of contents
Book review (H-Net)
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Sample text
Table of contents

ISBN:

0521590906
9780521590907

Subject:

Monasticism and religious orders Europe History.
Monachisme et ordres religieux Europe Histoire.
Monasticism and religious orders.
Kloosterwezen.
Revoluties.
Andliga ordnar Europa historia.
Klosterväsen Europa historia.
Europe.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 235437
Call No.: BX2590.B43 2003
Status: Available