Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650-1815

by Derek Beales

Overview

In the Catholic countries of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Europe, communities of monks and nuns were growing in number and wealth. They constructed vast buildings, dominated education, and played a large part in the practice and patronage of learning, music, and the arts. This lavishly-illustrated book offers a unique, comparative description of these communities—their wealth, growth, life, and importance—and then explains their catastrophic decline and fall between 1650 and 1815 by reforming rulers, the 'Enlightenment', and the French Revolution. Derek Beales, Professor Emeritus of Modern History, Cambridge, is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the British Academy. He has published numerous historical monographs including a book on musical history entitled, Mozart and the Habsburgs (Reeding, 1993) as well as articles in the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521590907
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/24/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	414
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.42(d)

About the Author

Derek Beales is Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 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.

Editorial Reviews

"An illuminating study of an understudied topic... Recommended." Choice

"...Beales' book provides fantastic new insights into the social and economic evolution of Catholic states in Western Europe from a monastic perspective." EH. NET, Lars M. Boerner, Institute of Economic History, School of Economics and Business, Humboldt Universtaet(Berlin)

"Beales has written a stunning book."
George Mariz, Western Washington University, Utopian Studies

From the Publisher