Innovatio and renovatio : changing cultural practices and monastic life in early modern Malta

Abstract

Social innovation is seen as a process or policy that radically shifts social values or the structure of authority in society. While clausura (enclosure) was not a novel policy in the mid-sixteenth century, yet its reaffirmation at the Council of Trent in 1563 triggered visible and wide-ranging changes in behaviour patterns. This paper views it as an innovative cultural practice in Malta, as it was elsewhere in early modern Europe. Its emergence was followed by diffusion and normalisation over subsequent decades, with complex and far-reaching social ramifications. This paper thus explores a social phenomenon whose implementation and development in the Maltese context merits further detailed study to be more deeply understood as a significant social innovation of the early modern period.