The Rise of the Cistercians

 

OBJECTIVES:

 

1. Be able to discuss the monastic career of Robert of Molesme, the tension between the eremitical and cenobitic lifestyles exhibited by his travels, and his criticism of monastic customs of his day.

2. Be able to discuss the motivations which led to the foundation of Cîteaux and whether these motivations reveal corruption or decline in monastic observances in houses such as Molesme.

3. Be able to discuss the governance structure of the Cistercian order as seen in the Carta Caritatis.

4. Be able to discuss the customs of the Cistercians and their interpretation of the Rule, and to differentiate those customs and interpretation from those of the Black Monks.

QUOTATIONS:

"See, though evil abounds in the world, the devotion of the faithful in the cloisters grows more abundant and bears fruit a hundredfold in the Lord=s field. Monasteries are founded everywhere in mountain valleys and plains, observing new rites and wearing new habits; the swarm of cowled monks spreads all over the world. They specially favor white in their habit ... Many who were parched with thirst have drunk from their spring; many streams have flowed out of it through all parts of France." Orderic Vitalis, Eccesiastical History

"Give these monks a naked moor or w wild wood; then let a few years pass away and you will find not only beautiful churches but dwellings of men built around them." Geraldis Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales)

"Since they realized without their help they would be unable to perfectly fulfill the precepts of the Rule day and night, they decided to admit unlettered men as lay-brothers with the approval of the bishop and to treat them in life and in death as their own, except for the rights reserved for choir monks.@ Exordium Parvum

"In fine, on all sides there appears so rich and amazing variety of forms that it is more delightful to read the marbles than the manuscripts, and to spend the whole day in admiring these things, piece by piece, rather than in meditating on the Law Divine." St. Bernard, Apologia ad Gulielmum

Bernard on the evils of the art of the Cluniacs:

"...The vast height of their churches, their immoderate length, their superfluous breadth, the costly polishings, the curious carvings and paintings which attract the worshipper=s gaze and hinder his attention." St. Bernard, Apologia ad Gulielmum

TERMS:

The novum monasterium

Black Monks

White Monks

Chapter General

Carta Caritatis

The granges

conversi

lay brothers

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Marjorie Chibnall, ed. and trans. Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.

Carta Caritatis. In Louis Lekai, The White Monks. Okauchee, Wis.: Our Lady of Spring Bank, 1953.

Exordium Parvum, trans. Robert E. Larkin. In Louis Lekai. The White Monks. Okauchee, Wis.: Our Lady of Spring Bank, 1953.

Secondary Sources

David Bell. What Nuns Read: Books and Libraries in Medieval English Nunneries. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1995.

David Bell. An Index of Authors and Works in Cistercian Libraries in Great Britain. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992.

Bede Lackner. Eleventh-Century Background of Cîteaux. Washington, D.C. : Cistercian Publications/Consortium Press, 1972.

Louis Lekai. The White Monks. Okauchee, Wis.: Our Lady of Spring Bank, 1953.

Joan Wardrop. Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors 1132-1300. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987.

 

OUTLINE

I. Tenth and Eleventh-Century Origins of Cîteaux

A. Cluny

i. Liturgical life in Cluniac Houses

ii. Wealth, Property, and the feudal system

iii. Art

II. Origins of the Cistercians

A. Robert of Molesme

i. Wanderings: From Ayoul to Collan

a. Foundation of Molesme

b. From Molesme to Aux

ii. Foundation of Cîteaux: Aa wasteland of howling desert@

a) Account of Orderic Vitalis

b) Alberic

c) Stephen Harding

i) Exordium Parvum

iii. The first four daughter houses

a) Clairvaulx

b) Le Ferté

c) Pontigny

d) Morimund

iv) Cistercian Houses by the end of the twelfth century

B. The Carta Caritatis

i. Customs of the Cistercians

a. Interpreting the Rule

b) Dress

c) Fasting/Food

d) Art

i) Cîteaux vs. Cluny

ii) Grisailles glass

iii) no gold, so silver

iv) simplicity and the Gothic style

e) Silence

i) Cistercian Sign Language

f) Isolation

i) issues

g) Property

i) Departure from Cluniacs and Feudal System

h) Manual Labor

i) vs. Cluny

ii)economic contributions

a) wool undustry

b) wine

c) other examples

iii) The conversi

a) literacy and class

b) examples from Rievaulx, Fountains, and other abbeys

 

 

i) Governance

a) definition of an order vs. a single monastic house

b) The visitation of the Abbot of Cîteaux to the four daugher houses

c) The Chapter General