Periculoso was a papal decretal

Decretal

Decretals is the name that is given in Canon law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law.They are generally given in answer to consultations, but are sometimes due to the initiative of the popes...

 of Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Gaetani, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in the Eighth circle of Hell in his Divina Commedia, among the Simonists.- Biography :Gaetani was born in 1235 in...

 issued in 1298, that required the claustration of Catholic nuns. It is often incorrectly referred to as a papal bull

Papal bull

A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....

.

Canonical status

Periculoso was later incorporated into the Liber Sextus, a compilation of papal legislation. Many of the specific requirements of Periculoso were often disobeyed in practice, and "Councils and bishops struggled manfully to put into force" its teachings for the next three centuries. The decretal was first confirmed in 1309 by the encyclical Apostolicae sedis of Pope Clement V

Pope Clement V

Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...

. Three 16th century papal bulls were also promulgated to reinforce the basic principles of Periculoso: Circa pastoralis (1566) and Decori et honestati (1570) of Pope Pius V

Pope Pius V

Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...

 and Deo sacris (1572) of Pope Gregory XIII

Pope Gregory XIII

Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...

. The Council of Trent

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...

 (1563) in its final session reiterated the commandments of the decretal and added new and stiff sanctions for violators. By the time of the Council, the decretals dictates had largely become synonymous with traditional conceptions of nunhood; for example, the Council referred to enclosure as the "primary obligation for nuns".

Some contemporary commentators regarded the regulations of Periculoso as either repetitive with or derivative of existing monastic vows

Religious vows

Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices and views.In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition, many different kinds of religious vows are taken by the lay community as well as by...

; others considered it far stricter than the prevailing social contract between nuns and the ecclesiastical hierarchy at the time.

Content and application

Periculoso attempted both to "standardize" the lives of nuns from different houses and orders around the practice of "enclosure" and to demarcate distinctions between nuns and monks. The severity of the enforcement of the directive varied considerably across Europe, in part because the strict enforcement of the practice of enclosure would have "undermine[d] the economic stability" of many convents because of the way they generated revenue and solicited contributions within their communities.

Periculoso states:

"Wishing to provide for the dangerous and abominable situation of certain nuns, who, casting off the reins of respectability and impudently abandoning nunnish modesty and the natural bashfulness of their sex […] we do firmly decree […] that nuns collectively and individually, both at present and in future, of whatsoever community or order, in whatever part of the world they may be, ought henceforth to remain perpetually cloistered in their monasteries […] so that [the nuns] be able to serve God more freely, wholly separated from the public and worldly gaze and, occasions for lasciviousness having been removed, may most diligently safeguard their hearts and bodies in complete chastity

Chastity

Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....

."

One of the main rationales for enclosure in the directive was the alleged licentiousness of many nuns; However, empirical inquiries into the prevalence of sexually active nuns reveals that most were involved with priests already incorporated into the convent or with male agents whose presence was required as a result of enclosure. Such results are consistent with contemporary criticism of the decretal, for example by Humbert de Romans

Humbert de Romans

Humbert of Romans was the fifth Master general of the Dominican Order from 1254 to 1263.-Early career:...

, the Master General of the Dominican Order. For its part, Periculoso was conscious to some degree of the financial predicaments of many monasteries, and required the careful monitoring of the size of convents in an attempt to ensure that they did not outgrow their financial supports.

In the wake of the promulgation of the decretal, walls, locked doors, and barred and grated windows became nearly (but not completely) ubiquitous in monasteries. Architectural divisions became prominent markets of the regulation of the shared space that remained (such as chapels). However, the delay of the implementation of claustration in some areas was dramatic; for example, in Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, the enclosure of female monastic communities did not become prominent until the mid-fifteenth century (due to the efforts of Johannes Busch

Johannes Busch

Johannes Busch was a major reformer and provost of the Augustinian monastic order. He was associated with the Brethren of the Common Life.He was born in Zwolle...

). According to Lowe, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 was the only state in the Italian peninsula

Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...

 which did not eventually implement the decretal due to a dispute between the patriarch of Grado

Patriarch of Grado

This is a list of the Patriarchs of Grado . The patriarchate came into being when the schismatic Patriarch of Aquileia, Paulinus , moved to Grado in the mid 6th century. But in their reunion with Rome in 606, a rival office was set up in Old-Aquileia. Aquileia later entered communion with Rome but...

 and the pope over the nuns of S. Maria Celeste.

One side effect of the decretal was the rapid urbanization of European monasteries, often to locations near city gates, due to economic necessity.

Interpretation

Elizabeth Makowski interprets the document as an attempt to "safeguard nuns from themselves; to diminish, if not completely remove, worldly temptations". Makowski further views Periculoso as a means of "controlling female religiosity" in the face of movements such as the Guglielmites which had begun to challenge papal supremacy

Papal supremacy

Papal supremacy refers to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that the pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire Christian Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered: that, in brief,...

 and advocate radical roles for women in the 13th century. Brundage and Makowski conclude that Periculoso made enclosure "an end in itself to which other values of religious life were increasingly subordinated". Similarly, Rapley argues that "'celibacy for the kingdom,' became little by little, and exclusively for women, an end in itself to which all feminine religious life had to be subordinated.

The document has been interpreted as a "watershed in the history of female monasticism". Departing from earlier (informal) traditions of enclosure, Periculoso focuses on the nuns' own "propensity for sinful behavior" rather than the dangers of the external world.

Some commentators have argued that Periculoso was meant only to have a symbolic impact; others that its intent was additionally to change the material conditions in nunneries across Europe. Indeed, the decretal itself contends that "it is pointless indeed to make laws unless someone be designated to enforce them" (in the case of Periculoso, the prelates were so designated). English canonist John of Ayton commented that the decretal was merely a "dead letter" and that there was "scare any mortal man who could do this". Of course, episcopal records abound of bishops who did in fact attempt to enforce the decretal, both successfully and unsuccessfully.