Cistercians, Cistercian Abbeys and Abbots of Cîteaux

By 1111 this economic model had proved itself. Stephen sent a group of 12 monks to start a "daughter house". In the same year, 1113, Bernard (later known as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux) arrived at Cîteaux with 30 others to join the monastery. In 1114 another daughter house was founded, and in 1115 Bernard founded Clairvaux, followed by Morimond the same year. Then a series of similar economic enterprises. At Stephen's death in 1134 there were over 30 Cistercian daughter houses. At Bernard's death in 1154 there were over 280. By the end of the twelfth century there were over 500. As the economic power of the Cistercians grew, so did their political clout. St Bernard saw one of his monks ascend the papal chair as Pope Eugene III. The first nunnery was founded in 1125; at the period of their widest extension there are said to have been 900 nunneries. There were also "double houses" of monks and nuns.

The Cistercians initially renounced all sources of income arising from benefices, tithes, tolls and rents, and depended for their income wholly on the land and the labour of their lay brethren. They developed a system for selling their farm produce; cattle, sheep and horses; and other agricultural products. By the middle of the 13th century the export of wool by Cistercians had become a major factor in the commerce of England. Farming operations on a massive scale were carried out by the lay brothers who needed no pay and who fed themselves - though not quite as well as they fed the choir monks. Lay brothers were recruited from the peasantry. They were simple uneducated men, whose function was to labour in the fields and carry on useful trades. They formed a body of lesser beings who lived alongside of the noble choir monks, separate from them, not taking part in the canonical offices and having their own fixed round of prayer and religious exercises. Lay brothers were never ordained, and never held any office of superiority. There were sometimes as many as 300 in a single abbey - much like worker bees in a bee hive.

Cistercians represented a compromise between the Benedictine system, in which each abbey was autonomous and isolated, and the Cluniac system which was completely centralised with the abbot of Cluny the only superior in the whole organisation. The Cistercians adopted a middle course. Each abbey had its own abbot, elected (initially) by its own monks; its own property and its own finances. But all the abbeys were subjected to the general chapter of Cistercian abbots, which met yearly at Cîteaux. The abbot of Cîteaux was the president of the chapter and of the order, with the power to enforce conformity in all details of observance. Cîteaux was the model to which all the other houses had to conform.

Cistercians played a leading part in the Crusades - both military and spiritual aspects. The Knights Templar were literally warrior Cistercians, monks who took normal monastic vows and who were also licensed to kill.

Cistercians also played an important role in the wars against the people of the Languedoc, first as preachers, then as Crusade leaders and chroniclers. A few of the important French Cistercians in the wars against the people of the Languedoc include:

• St Bernard, (Abbot of Clairvaux) whose preaching in the Languedoc failed so conspicuously, and from whose letters we have valuable information about the state of the Catholic Church in the twelfth century in the area around Toulouse. Click on the following link for more on Bernard of Clairvaux (Saint Bernard)
• Henry of Marcy, Abbot of Clairvaux took part in a failed mission to the Languedoc in 1178. A little later, now Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, he tried again. Presaging the Albigensian Crusade, but on a smaller scale, his failure as a preacher led to him heading a military expedition against the territories of Roger II Trencavel, Viscount of Beziers. Commanding armed forces provided by Raymond V of Toulouse, Henry successfully took Lavaur in 1181, capturing two Cathar Parfaits.
• Pierre de Castelnau, a papal legate of Innocent III from the Abbey of Fontfroide, whose murder provided the pretext for the Cathar Crusade
• Arnaud Amaury (Abbot of Cîteaux) who was the military leader of the Crusade which started in 1209, and who is most famously remembered for his command "Kill them all. God will recognise his own" spoken before the massacre at Béziers and recorded by a fellow Cistercian. Click on the following link for more on Arnaud Amaury
• Raynaldus, an early thirteenth century Cistercian chronicler who wrote a tract against the Cathars called Accusations against the Albigensians. Click on the following link for more on the Raynaldus and his Accusations against the Albigensians
• Guy and Pierre des Vaux de Carney. A Crusading Cistercian Abbot (Guy) and his nephew (Peter), a monk who left an invaluable record of the Crusaders actions and their belief system. Click on the following link for more on Pierre Des Vaux-de-Cernay and his Historia Albigensis   

• Jacques Fournier. A famously obese Cistercian Inquisitor from Saverdun. He became Abbot of Fontfroide in 1311, Bishop of Pamiers in1317 and Bishop of Mirepoix in 1318. Jacques Fournier was made a Cardinal in 1327 and elected Pope in Avignon in 1334 and is better known to history as Benedict XII (died 1342). His Inquisitorial records from his stint as bishop were moved to the papal archives, where they provided the raw material for the historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie who wrote a classic book about the fate of Montaillou, a Cathar vilage: Montaillou, Village Occitan, published in 1975. Click on the following link to read an English translation of the transcript of one of his interrogations   

Cistercian architecture is largely attributed to Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (St Bernard).

Cistercian churches were often constructed away from centres of population, often in remote valleys near streams. Cistercian Architecture was sceptical of artistic excess. No statues or pictures were allowed in or even near the church and the windows were generally of clear glass.

They used water as a source for power, with the nearby streams, laid the church on the North side of the site, with Monasteries and Cloisters to the South.

Buildings were made of smooth, pale, stone with plane columns, pillars and windows. Plastering was kept extremely simple or not used at all. Stone decoration was invariably simple, and it was the architecture rather than the ornamentation that betrayed its religious nature.

Cistercian abbeys generally followed a standard design - so that most Cistercian abbeys have a common layout - useful for amateur enthusiasts as they are almost all now in ruins. A good example of a Cistercian church is Fontenay, in France, built in 1139 A.D.

Relaxations were introduced with respect to rules around diet and simplicity of life, and also in regard to the sources of income. Rents and tolls were admitted and benefices incorporated, as was already standard among the Benedictines. Farming operations tended to promote a commercial ethos, and the Order became fabulously wealthy. Splendour and luxury became a feature of many Cistercian monasteries, and the choir monks abandoned even the pretence of working in the fields. Then their influence began to wane, largely because of their unwieldy size, their extensive corruption, and the rise of the mendicant orders - the Dominicans and the Franciscans.

The later history of the Cistercians is largely one of unsuccessful attempted revivals and reforms. In the 17th century an effort at a general reform was made, promoted by the pope and the king of France. The General Chapter elected Richelieu as commendatory abbot of Cîteaux, thinking that he would protect them from the threatened reform. In fact Richelieu tried his best to promote reform, but the endemic corruption was too deep, and he proved another in a long line of failed reformers. A later attempt at reform resulted in the formation (1663) of the Trappists.