Taming a brood of vipers : conflict and change in fourteenth-century Dominican convents / by Michael A. Vargas.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Success and successors -- The contentious birth of a new province -- Growth, crisis and recovery -- Bad-boy friars and complicit leaders -- Friar-youths and troublesome others -- Office and official -- Challenged vows -- In defense of corporate honor.

Gamblers, cheats, womanizers and thieves, and cranky reformers who wanted their old Order back, flesh-and-blood men with complicated desires and knotty dispositions. Opening a rich trove of sources the annual chapter acts of the Dominican Order 's Province of Aragon Michael Vargas uncovers the costly successes and institutional weaknesses that contributed to the distressing realities of Dominican conventual life in the troubled fourteenth century. Taming a Brood of Vipers finds Dominican friars engaged in activities very much at odds with our sense of the way it should have been, but removing.

Print version record.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide