Thomas Netter: Pushing Back the Boundariesof Affiliation in the Carmelite Order

Abstract

Through intensive research and masterful storytelling, the author vividly depicts Carmelite life and the cultural, political and religious  climate during the last part of the fourteenth century and the first part of the fifteenth. He presents a short biographical sketch of  Thomas Netter and a description of his views on religious life and contemplation. Netter gained acknowledgement not only among  Carmelite circles but also from the entire Catholic community of Europe for his evocative spiritual and theological wisdom. As  provincial in England, he reacted by pushing the boundaries of membership a little further by associating men and women in way  consonant with the spirituality of the Order, but well located in the best traditions of English reclusive life.