Richard Whitford’s Humanism and Monastic Renewal: Birgittine Spirituality and the New Learning in The Pype, or Tonne, of the Lyfe of Perfection

• Published in: The Sixteenth century journal Vol. 54; no. 3-4; pp. 309 - 334
• Main Author: Alakas, Brandon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago University of Chicago Press 01.09.2023
• Subjects: 16th century; Humanism; Lifestyles; Monasteries; Religious literature; Religious reform; Spirituality; Whitford, Richard (fl 1495-1555)
• ISSN: 0361-0160; 2326-0726
• DOI: 10.1086/727950

Richard Whitford’s 1532 Pype, or Tonne, of the Lyfe of Perfection provides a thorough-going defence of monastic life against evangelical reformers; however, this text is equally remarkable for its comprehensive program of monastic renewal. What was needed, according to the Birgittine author, is regeneration from the ground up. Whitford’s reforming vision stands out primarily on account of its solid pedagogical foundation. In place of critique, The Pype offers detailed practical and theoretical foundations for living and reforming religious life that blend the Birgittine spirituality in which he immersed himself at Syon Abbey with early sixteenth-century humanism that he encountered at university and cherished through his association with Erasmus and Thomas More. In doing so, he marries a spirituality that unites learning and reform with a commitment to the value of source texts, the importance of citation, the origins of specific religious practices, and the need to understand the ancients on their own terms.