Ny vin på gamle flasker: Livet i Maribo Kloster efter reformationen

Resumé

Get thee to a nunnery
Hamlet, 3.1 (1602)
Tidligere behandlinger af livet i birgittinernes kloster i Maribo efter reformationen har været skrevet af fag- og amatørhistorikere i 1800- og første halvdel af 1900-tallet, der enten var lutheranere eller repræsentanter for den radikale historikertradition. Megen forståelse for katolsk ordensliv har de ikke haft, hvorfor disse behandlinger er præget af mange misforståelser og fejltolkninger. I det følgende analyseres og vurderes de ændringer, der fra tid til anden af kongen blev beordret indført i klostret, på basis af de direktiver, St. Birgitta havde foreskrevet for nonnernes liv i sin ordensregel. Der foretages også sammenligninger med forholdene i andre lande, primært med forholdene i St Birgittas klostre, men også med klosterliv i almindelighed. Det sker for at bevare spørgsmålet om kontinuitet og diskontinuitet i Maribo Kloster.

New Wine into Old Bottles:
Maribo Abbey after the Reformation
At the Reformation in 1536 all friaries in Denmark were closed. The monasteries, however, were allowed to exist, now as royal possession. As new intake of monks and nuns were not allowed, their days were of course numbered. An exception from this general rule was the two Birgittine monasteries at Maribo and Mariager, since they continued with royal ap-proval to receive noble women as nuns. Mariager was first closed in 1588, Maribo in 1620-52 and 84 years after the Reformation.
In an attempt to answer the question about continuity and discontinuity in the life of the nuns at Maribo the present article analyzes the many letters, sent by the royal chancellery to the abbesses in the period 1536-1620. The changes in the nuns’ religious and social life, ordered in these letters, are evaluated on the background of the Regula Salvatoris by St Bir-gitta. We can thus see that the nuns continued to live their traditional monastic life and only slowly and reluctantly accepted the religious customs of Lutheranism.