Description
Book SynopsisThis lavishly-illustrated book offers a unique, comparative description of the great monasteries of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, their wealth, growth, life, and importance - and then explains their catastrophic decline and fall between 1750 and 1815 through reforming rulers, 'Enlightenment', and the French Revolution.
Trade Review'A major revision of a central area of scholarship … This is a study of the first importance for the period, and no one writing in the future will be able to ignore it. It is also very attractively written: concise, lucid and cogent.' Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge
'Derek Beale's Prosperity and Plunder, beautifully produced and illustrated, is as elegiac a book as I have read in ages. I was informed, saddened and enraged in equal proportions.' John Morrill, BBC History Magazine
'… this is a book which should be read by any historian or general reader who supposes monasteries to be dull, inert institutions, cut off from their political and social settings.' The Times Literary Supplement
'This is an excellent book, lucidly written, wonderfully illustrated, and beautifully produced. It is also an important one.' Church Times
'This handsomely produced and wonderfully illustrated book is much broader and more interesting than its title and timescale suggest.' European Review of History
'Derek Beales's important and impressively presented and illustrated book is written with a strong sense of mission. … impressively wide-ranging.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History
'This handsomely produced and wonderfully illustrated book is much broader and more interesting than its title and timescale suggests. It fills a huge gap in its field with admirable skill, sympathy and learning.' European History
'Derek Beale's important and impressively presented and illustrated book is written with a strong sense of mission. … impressively wide-ranging'. Journal of Ecclesiastical History
'This handsome and well-illustrated volume is a distinguished monument to the monasticism of the ancient regime.' The Historical Journal
'… precise analysis of evolving policies …'. Historical Journal
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. At the Brim of Prosperity: 1. The Counter-Reformation and the monasteries; 2. The German Catholic lands; 3. France; 4. Spain and Portugal; 5. Italy; Part II. The Time of Reform: 6. The suppression of the Jesuits; 7. Patterns of reform (i): France: the commission des réguliers; 8. Patterns of reform (ii): the Austrian monarchy: the Joseph(in)ist solution; Part III. The Time of Revolution: 9. The revolution in France;10. The impact of the Revolution outside France; Conclusion; Bibliographical essay; Index.
