Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1. Angela Merici and the Company of St. Ursula 1
1. Women?s religious life (twelfth to sixteenth century) 2
2. Life of Angela Merici 7
2.1. Sources 7
2.2. Desenzano and Sal¿ 8
2.3. Brescia. 12
3. The Company of St. Ursula, a ?women?s society? 23
3.1. Overview of the Company 23
3.2. A women?s community 25
3.3. A Company managed ?from below? 27
3.4. Worldly self-sufficiency 30
3.5. Religious status and commitment 34
3.6. Charity and teaching 38
Chapter 2. The Company in society 63
1. The Company of St. Ursula and ideas about women 64
1.1. Prescriptive literature on women 64
1.2. The Ursulines? worldly life 66
1.3. The Ursulines? identity 71
2. The Company and Brescian Society 80
2.1. The Members of the Company 81
2.2. The Company in the Brescian economic, social and political context 85
2.3. Social motivations for entering and rejecting the Company 87
3. The rule of the Company of St. Ursula and its authorship 93
Chapter 3. Female spirituality 117
1. The Bride of Christ in historical perspective (twelfth to sixteenth century) 118
2. A female approach to the sacred: Angela Merici?s rule 130
2.1. Relationship with God 132
2.2. The Ursulines? active roles 142
2.3. Institutional dimension 146
2.4. Conclusions 157
Chapter 4. Spiritual Currents in Sixteenth-Century Italy 177
1. Angela and the debate on the Reform of the Church 179
2. The Ideal of ?Charity? 185
2.1. Sixteenth-century attitudes towards charity and poverty 186
2.2. Angela Merici?s view of charity 189
3. Individuality, interiority and morality in Early Modern Catholicism 192
3.1. Italian sixteenth-century religious circles 192
3.2. Interior and exterior spirituality in sixteenth-century writings 195
3.3. Angela Merici?s spirituality 206
3.4. Differences between Angela Merici and sixteenth-century spirituality 214
Chapter 5. Holy Women, Modern Individuals 232
1. Spirituality, Self & Gender 232
1.1. Catholic spirituality and the Renaissance notion of the ?self? 233
1.2. Gender and the Self 240
2. Epilogue: the Company of St. Ursula after Angela Merici 249
2.1. Evolution of the Company in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 249
2.2. The social outlook of the new Company 254
2.3. Carlo Borromeo?s rule of the Company of St. Ursula 257
Bibliography 278
Index