The medieval diocese of Liège is widely recognized as an innovative religious center—most famously as the birthplace of the feast of Corpus Christi and a prominent nurturing ground for female spirituality. The region is also known for its powerful bishop-princes who recruited large numbers of secular clergy to oversee the administration of this vast territory. Overshadowed by the prevailing emphasis on episcopal rule, Eucharistic worship, and lay devotion, monasticism has hitherto held a less prominent place in external perceptions of liégeois history. The present volume, inspired by a conference held at the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (18–19 November, 2011), breaks new ground by transcending national interests to bring international attention to the region's vibrant monastic cultures. The contributors examine the intersection of monastic and regional identity in the prestigious monasteries of Gembloux, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Jacques, Saint-Hubert, Stavelot-Malmedy, and Villers, among others, situated at a geographic and cultural crossroads between the French and Germanic realms.

During the period from 1000 to 1300, the monastic history of Liège was influenced by three developments that serve as the organizing principle for the eleven essays in this collection. The reforms of the eleventh century receive the greatest attention. Helena Vanommeslaeghe examines tensions between the monastic ideals of enclosure and mobility in narrative accounts of reforming abbots, who engaged with the outer world through frequent travel. Monastic-secular interaction similarly guides Nicolas Schroeder's study of the effect of the changing power structure of the abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy on its lay dependents once the French-inspired system of territorial lordship had replaced the Germanic familia network, connecting peasants to the monks, abbot, and patron saint (Remaclus). Klaus Krönert examines how hagiographic writings by monks reveal patterns of cultural exchange between the rivaling sees of Trier, Cologne, and Liège, and Tjamke Snijders studies inter-monastic contact between the reformed Benedictine communities of Liège, Flanders, and Cambrai. Turning to the production of large-format lectern manuscripts in the monastic scriptoria of Reims and Liège, Diane Reilly argues that reform-minded monastic and episcopal leaders commissioned histories by Flavius Josephus alongside the Bible and patristic commentaries to foster a renewed understanding of the historical sense of scripture while defending the idea of imperial hegemony. Scripture and biblical exegesis likewise figure prominently in the early-twelfth-century booklist scrutinized by Jay Diehl, who links this source to the previously-overlooked pedagogical activities of Rupert of Deutz and his formation of an innovative school at the abbey of Saint-Laurent, where French-inspired developments in scholasticism would merge with the Germanic ideology of church reform.

The early-twelfth-century dynamics of the Investiture Controversy and the status of the principal witness to these events—the Cantatorium of the monastery of Saint-Hubert—are reinterpreted by three contributors. Ortwin Huysmans compares this source to the more enigmatic writings of canon Alger of Liège to question the existence of a hard and fast dichotomy between imperialists and Gregorians, arguing instead for a tamer approach to the pragmatic reactions of both the clergy and nobility to the controversial ambitions of Bishop Otbert. Brigitte Meijns investigates the turbulent history of the papal bull obtained by Abbot Theodoric I in 1074 to secure the monastery's domains, considering how it was used by the Hubertine monks during the Investiture Controversy and to shape monastic identity. Michel Margue prioritizes this process of identity formation in his analysis of the discourses of foundation, decadence, and reform in the Cantatorium to challenge earlier interpretations of this chronicle as strictly Gregorian.

The emergence of the region's famed mulieres religiosae in the thirteenth century inspires fresh inquiries from the remaining two contributors who both draw upon the well-studied Cistercian connection. Sara Moens identifies Villers as one of the first monasteries to champion the new forms of female visionary agency and purgatorial piety pioneered by Hildegard of Bingen and practiced by the mulieres. John Van Engen seeks to uncover the initial historical conditions motivating these women through a careful reading of their vitae in conjunction with contemporaneous developments in church reform. Van Engen positions the mulieres between the parish and the cloister in their fulfillment of neglected sacerdotal functions, such as counselling, confessing, and preaching—roles they would retain even after their “institutionalization” as Cistercians or recluses.

The varied contributions to this collection paint a multicolored picture of monastic society and foreground the rich array of surviving documentary evidence from the Liège region. A perusal of the bibliographies concluding each essay reveals the vast range of historical, hagiographic, diplomatic, and liturgical sources, among others, that await further study. Having demonstrated amply the diversity and vitality of medieval monastic culture across the diocese, this collection is sure to stimulate additional research from many disciplinary perspectives—expanding, for example, on the existing work of musicologists such as Michel Huglo, “Les sequences de Münsterbilsen” in Gordon Athol Anderson (1929–1981) in memoriam: Von seinen Studenten, Freunden und Kollegen (Institute of Mediæval Music, 1984: vol. 2, 393-402), among other publications; Karl Kügle, “Two Abbots and a Rotulus: New Light on Brussels 19606,” in Quomodo cantabimus canticum? Studies in Honor of Edward H. Roesner (American Institute of Musicology, [2008]: 145–185); and Pieter Mannaerts, “An Exception to the Rule? The Thirteenth-Century Cistercian Historia for Mary of Oignies,” (Journal of the Alamire Foundation 2 [2010]: 233–269). The essays that consider how monastic communities engaged with the world extra muros also invite further consideration of the complex interactions between the regular and secular clergy—a fruitful area of future research noted by Alexis Wilkin in his concluding remarks. The volume as a whole successfully balances local and global, regional and supra-regional perspectives in the study of medieval monastic networks, thereby uncovering the multifarious factors that shaped the individualized identity of each monastic community. It provides an insightful and much needed complement to the existing scholarship on medieval Liège and illuminates the broader cultural dynamics of medieval monasticism.