This essay illuminates a little-known chapter in the history of English Catholicism by examining the controversies among the English Benedictine convent at Brussels between 1620 and 1623. The disputes began as a simple clash of personalities between Abbess Mary Percy and the house’s ordinary confessor Robert Chambers, and they culminated in allegations by pro-Jesuit nuns and confessors that Francis Ward, a second ordinary confessor, was attempting to seduce one of his penitents. These early clashes illustrate the cultural and gender politics of the Continental convents established for Englishwomen during the seventeenth century. By nature a female-oriented institution, the cloister encouraged women to attain monastic versions of stereotypical feminine virtues. Gender consequently provided a convenient means of understanding, evaluating, and politicizing monastic piety. As this paper will show, individuals who held little to no official power at Brussels used gender stereotypes to legitimize their interventions in the convent’s affairs. Nuns, confessors, and anonymous outsiders attempted to diminish the spiritual authority of Percy and Ward by raising the spectre of traditionally feminine vices. Within the woman-centred space of the Brussels convent, gender thus became an essential means of claiming moral authority and addressing larger concerns over monastic order and spiritual direction.1

中文翻译：

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权威、性别和修道院的虔诚：布鲁塞尔英国本笃会修道院的争议，1620-1623

这篇文章通过考察 1620 年至 1623 年间在布鲁塞尔的英国本笃会修道院之间的争议，阐明了英国天主教历史上鲜为人知的一章。这些争议始于玛丽·珀西修道院院长和该院的普通忏悔者罗伯特·钱伯斯之间的简单冲突。 ，他们最终导致亲耶稣会修女和忏悔者指控弗朗西斯沃德，第二位普通忏悔者，试图引诱他的一名忏悔者。这些早期的冲突说明了 17 世纪为英国女性建立的大陆修道院的文化和性别政治。修道院本质上是一个以女性为导向的机构，它鼓励女性获得刻板女性美德的修道院版本。因此，性别提供了一种方便的理解、评估、并将寺院的虔诚政治化。正如本文将展示的那样，在布鲁塞尔几乎没有官方权力的人利用性别刻板印象来使他们对修道院事务的干预合法化。修女、忏悔者和匿名的局外人试图通过提高传统女性恶习的幽灵来削弱珀西和沃德的精神权威。在布鲁塞尔修道院以女性为中心的空间内，性别因此成为宣称道德权威和解决对修道院秩序和精神方向的更大关注的重要手段。匿名的局外人试图通过提高传统女性恶习的幽灵来削弱珀西和沃德的精神权威。在布鲁塞尔修道院以女性为中心的空间内，性别因此成为宣称道德权威和解决对修道院秩序和精神方向的更大关注的重要手段。匿名的局外人试图通过提高传统女性恶习的幽灵来削弱珀西和沃德的精神权威。在布鲁塞尔修道院以女性为中心的空间内，性别因此成为宣称道德权威和解决对修道院秩序和精神方向的更大关注的重要手段。1