Private religious studies as an alternative or competition to university education? The education of religious in early modern Europe.

The 8th international conference in the Monastica Historia series is dedicated to the education of members of religious orders in early modern Europe, with a possible look at or comparison with modern times (19th and 20th centuries). Studia filosophica et theologia, studia ordinis or studia privata are the most common terms used by scholars to describe the education that religious orders offered their members as part of their preparation for a career as a priest. These studia were associated with selected religious houses, and the teachers were recruited exclusively from members of the order whose members were offered this form of preparation.

The conference will be held in the town of Nová Říše (German: Neureisch) in Moravia, Czechia, from 11-13 September 2025.

Call for Papers

The contributions should not only deal with the functioning of these ‘studies’ in the various religious houses, but also with the training provided to the members of the order at universities and in diocesan seminaries. They should provide answers to the following questions:

1. How did the studia of religious orders function in organisational terms? What rules and regulations were there for training? (Comparison of ideal and reality on the basis of official documents and narrative sources; typology of the houses in which the training took place; completion of studies and the right to award academic degrees).
2. What was the content of the teaching? How did it differ in the individual religious communities, at the public universities and in the diocesan seminaries? (Structure of the subjects taught; the libraries of the religious houses that pursued higher studies; the teaching and study texts used, including handwritten lecture notes; theses ad gradum and their graphic layout).
3. Who did the religious orders choose as teachers for their higher studies? Who of the religious taught at the universities and in the seminaries? (The usual career of professors of religious orders, evaluation of their scientific activity and literary work).
4. What specific philosophical and theological schools of thought were developed in the (private) studies of the individual orders? Were other disciplines also taught?
5. What role did study play in the religious orders? What was the relationship between religious studies and the education received before entering the order? (The importance of studies in the formation of the order; the influence of the results of studies on the further career of the order).

Contributions should not last longer than 20 minutes.

Conference languages: German and English

Proposals and applications should be sent to marek.brcak@ruk.cuni.cz or valento-va@hiu.cas.cz by 15 April 2025, stating the title of the paper and a short abstract (10 to 15 lines).

On behalf of the organisers

• Marek Brčák (Institute of History of Charles University and Archive of Charles University in Prague)
• Kateřina Bobková-Valentová and Tomáš Černušák (Historical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)

This event is also supported by the Diocesan Archives of St. Pölten.

Call for Papers (German version)