The Spiritual Significance of Property and Place in Monastic Resistance to the Reformation.

Historians of early modern Europe have long been interested in how female monastics responded to the Reformation's message. While most modern scholars emphasize the socio-economic reasons a woman might have wished to remain in her convent, this article shows that religious concerns led the vast majority of monastic women in Württemberg to both reject the Reformation and refuse to leave a territory which had become Protestant. These women did so in part because they believed they were spiritually responsible for protecting the property and financial assets of their convent's founders and benefactors. This article therefore explores early modern monasticism's emphasis on the spiritual significance of property and place and how the Reformation challenged that belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]