Abstract
Moment of a major urban and economic expansion, the twelfth century was also marked by voices crying from the European deserts. This was a time marked by the tension between a reorganization of the community life and the search for isolation. The appearance of the Carthusian monks occurred precisely at this context. It offers a major opportunity for a closer study of ecclesial process that I have called “the monopolization of loneliness” (the control of isolation by the Ecclesia). I intend to demonstrate how writing and silence (linked to the studium and the notion of communication “per litteras”) constitute a true “regime of speech” dialectically responsible for solving the contradiction between the hermit propositum abandonment of the world and their insertion on the ecclesial community.
Keywords
Middle Ages; Monasticism; Grande Chartreuse; Solitude; Ecclesiology