The Meaning(s) of Reform

Since Antiquity, ‘reform’ meant bringing something that had grown our of form back into its original form. In the late Middle Ages, this understanding of reform gradually began to assume our modern meaning, namely ”the amendment, or altering for the better, of some faulty state of things” (OED, 1663). Relying on sources from Fontevraud, France’s largest and most influential female monastic network, this paper will analyze the tensions between the reform-narrative, which remained classical and the implications of reform, which saw significant changes to established organizational structures of Fontevraud and numerous houses that came under its influence.