Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T19:17:22.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Centres and peripheries

from Part II - Structure and materiality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Mette Birkedal Bruun
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Get access

Summary

The history of the Cistercian Order in the Middle Ages encompasses the histories of its central structures, the General Chapter, the international networks and the experiences of individual monastic houses. We cannot isolate one from the other; if we want to explore the history of the White Monks as a whole, we have to consider both the centre and the periphery of the Order and their influence on each other.

In the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Cistercian movement spread from Burgundy to the very frontiers of Latin Christendom in Scandinavia, the Baltic region, Central-Eastern Europe, Iberia, the crusader states and Greece. Cistercian expansion in the 1120s and 1130s involved primarily the core of Western Europe – France, Germany, the British Isles and Christian territories in Iberia – whilst in the 1140s a wave of foundations emerged in Central-Eastern Europe (Poland, Bohemia and Hungary) and Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). The White Monks spread through the foundation of new monasteries from mother houses, but also through incorporation of other reformed communities and appropriation of existing monasteries. Proprietary patrons were often instrumental in this process. In Ireland Cistercian monasteries play an important part in bringing the Hibernian Church in line with the continental model of diocesan and monastic structures. Although the first Cistercian abbey in Ireland, Mellifont, was a direct foundation from Clairvaux, its many daughter houses were originally native monastic communities, which took up Cistercian customs to become incorporated into the Order. Their success was in no small part a result of Irish kings’ support for the ideas of reform. In Denmark the Hvides, a leading noble family in the region, transformed the Benedictine house at Sorø on Zealand (founded in the late 1140s) into a Cistercian monastery in 1161. The founders of the oldest Polish Cistercian abbeys were predominantly bishops, whilst the arrival of White Monks in Scotland was closely connected with the implementation of Church reform there. Many lay founders were ambitious noblemen, such as Fergus, lord of Galloway or Warcisław Świe˛tobrzyc, castellan of Szczecin in Western Pomerania. For the social elites of the European frontiers the Cistercians represented aspirational cultural and spiritual capital. Their acts of patronage were one way of asserting their status as members of the Latin Christian nobility.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Esmark, K., ‘Religious Patronage and Family Consciousness: Sorø Abbey and the “Hvide Family”, c.1150–1250’, in Religious and Laity in Western Europe 1000–1400: Interaction, Negotiation and Power, ed. E. Jamroziak and J. Burton (Turnhout, 2006)Google Scholar
Jotischky, A., The Perfection of Solitude: Hermits and Monks in the Crusader States (University Park, PA, 1995)
Nyberg, T., Monasticism in North-Western Europe, 800–1200 (Aldershot, 2000)
Rosik, S. and Urbańczyk, P., ‘Polabia and Pomerania between Paganism and Christianity’, in Christianisation and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus c. 900–1200, ed. Berend, N. (Cambridge, 2007)Google Scholar
Krötzl, C., ‘Die Cistercienser und die Mission “ad pagano” 1150–1250’, Analecta Cisterciensia, 62 (2012), pp. 278–98Google Scholar
Conrad, K. (ed.), Pommersches Urkundenbuch, vol. i (Cologne, 1970)
Pósán, L., ‘The Invitation of the Teutonic Order into Kulmerland’, in The Crusades and the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontiers of Medieval Latin Christianity, ed. Hunyadi, Z. and Laszlovszky, J. (Budapest, 2001)
Zielińska-Mlekowska, K., ‘Św Chrystian – misyjny biskup Prus’, Nasza Przeszłość, 83 (1994), 46
Bell, D. N., ‘From Molesme to Cîteaux: The Earliest “Cistercian Spirituality”’, CSQ, 34 (1999), 469–82Google Scholar
Oberste, J., Die Dokumente der Klösterlichen Visitationen, Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental 80 (Turnhout, 1999)
Oberste, J., ‘Normierung und Pragmatik des Schriftgebrauchs im Cisterziensischen Visitationsverfahren bis zum beginnenden 14. Jahrhundert’, Historisches Jahrbuch, 114 (1994), 327–34Google Scholar
Swietek, F.R., ‘Et Inter Abbates de Majoribus unus: The Abbot of Savigny in the Cistercian Constitution, 1147–1243’, in Truth as Gift: Studies in Medieval Cistercian History in Honor of John R. Sommerfeldt, ed. M.L. Dutton et al., CS 204 (Kalamazoo, MI, 2004)Google Scholar
Locatelli, R., ‘Les Cisterciens dans l’espace français: filiations et réseaux’, in Unanimité et diversité cisterciennes: filiations, réseaux, relectures du XIIe au XVIIe siècle, ed. N. Bouter (Saint-Etienne, 2000)Google Scholar
Ferguson, P.C., Medieval Papal Representatives in Scotland: Legates, Nuncios, and Judges-Delegate, 1125–1286 (Edinburgh, 1997)
Barrow, G.W.S., The Acts of Malcolm IV, King of Scots, 1153–1165 (Edinburgh, 1960)
Knowles, D. et al. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1972)Google Scholar
‘Chronicle of Melrose’, pp. 177–8 and 61; K. Stringer, ‘Reform Monasticism and Celtic Scotland’, in Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages, ed. E.J. Cowan and R.A. McDonald (East Linton, 2000), pp. 127–65 (p. 155)
Anderson, A. Orr and Anderson, M. Ogilvie (eds.), Chronicle of Melrose: From the Cottonian Manuscript, Faustina B. IX in the British Museum. A Complete and Full-Size Facsimile in Collotype (London, 1936)
La Corte, D.M., ‘Pope Innocent IV’s Role in the Establishment and Early Success of the College of Saint Bernard in Paris’, Cîteaux, 46 (1995), 289–303Google Scholar
Griesser, B., ‘Registrum Epistolarum Stephani de Lexington’, ASOC, 2 (1946), 1–118Google Scholar
Grajkowska, L., ‘Polonizacja klasztoru cystersów w Wa˛growcu’, in Cystersi w kulturze średniowiecznej Europy, ed. Strzelczyk, J. (Poznań, 1992)Google Scholar
Palmer, N.F., ‘Deutschsprachige Literatur im Zisterzienserorden: Versuch einer Darstellung am Beispiel der ostschwäbischen Zisterzienser- und Zisterzienserinnenliteratur im Umkreis von Kloster Kaisheim im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert’, in Zisterziensisches Schreiben im Mittelalter: Das Skriptorium der Reiner Mönche, ed. A. Schwob and K. Kranich-Hofbauer (Bern, 2005)Google Scholar
Röhrkasten, J., ‘Regionalism and Locality as a Factor in the Study of Religious Orders’, in Mittelalterliche Orden und Klöster im Vergleich: Methodische Ansätze und Perspektiven, ed. G. Melville and A. Müller (Berlin, 2007)Google Scholar
Telesca, W., ‘The Order of Cîteaux during the Council of Basel, 1431–1449’, Cîteaux, 32 (1981), 17–36Google Scholar
Broun, D. and Harrison, J. (eds.), Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, 2 vols. (Woodbridge, 2007–)
Górecki, P. (ed.), A Local Society in Transition: The Henryków Book and Related Documents (Toronto, 2007)
Waddell, C. (ed.), Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, Cîteaux: Studia et Documenta 12 (Brecht, 2002)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×