The Cistercian Evolution: The Invention of a Religious Order in Twelfth-Century Europe (The Middle Ages Series) [Hardcover]

Constance Hoffman Berman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812235347 | ISBN-13: 978-0812235340 | Publication Date: January 24, 2000 | Edition: First Edition

According to the received history, the Cistercian order was founded in Cîteaux, France, in 1098 by a group of Benedictine monks who wished for a stricter community. They sought a monastic life that called for extreme asceticism, rejection of feudal revenues, and manual labor for monks. Their third leader, Stephen Harding, issued a constitution, the Carta Caritatis, that called for the uniformity of custom in all Cistercian monasteries and the establishment of an annual general chapter meeting at Cîteaux.

The Cistercian order grew phenomenally in the mid-twelfth century, reaching beyond France to Portugal in the west, Sweden in the north, and the eastern Mediterranean, ostensibly through a process of apostolic gestation, whereby members of a motherhouse would go forth to establish a new house. The abbey at Clairvaux, founded by Bernard in 1115, was alone responsible for founding 68 of the 338 Cistercian abbeys in existence by 1153. But this well-established view of a centrally organized order whose founders envisioned the shape and form of a religious order at its prime is not borne out in the historical record.

Through an investigation of early Cistercian documents, Constance Hoffman Berman proves that no reliable reference to Stephen's Carta Caritatis appears before the mid-twelfth century, and that the document is more likely to date from 1165 than from 1119. The implications of this fact are profound. Instead of being a charter by which more than 300 Cistercian houses were set up by a central authority, the document becomes a means of bringing under centralized administrative control a large number of loosely affiliated and already existing monastic houses of monks as well as nuns who shared Cistercian customs. The likely reason for this administrative structuring was to check the influence of the overdominant house of Clairvaux, which threatened the authority of Cîteaux through Bernard's highly successful creation of new monastic communities.

For centuries the growth of the Cistercian order has been presented as a spontaneous spirituality that swept western Europe through the power of the first house at Cîteaux. Berman suggests instead that the creation of the religious order was a collaborative activity, less driven by centralized institutions; its formation was intended to solve practical problems about monastic administration. With the publication of The Cistercian Evolution, for the first time the mechanisms are revealed by which the monks of Cîteaux reshaped fact to build and administer one of the most powerful and influential religious orders of the Middle Ages.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An extremely important book, one that will redefine the ways we conceive of medieval religiosity and politics."—Virginia Quarterly Review

"A significant contribution to the study of the history of monasticism in the twelfth century."—EHR

"Stimulating, controversial, and compelling, Constance Berman's major revisions of early Cistercian history, The Cistercian Evolution, should be read by historians of monasticism and will greatly interest scholars in the institutional and religious history of the twelfth century as well as those who study the experience of women in that period."—The Medieval Review

"An important and provocative book: important because it challenges scholars to rethink a central medieval theme, the creation and expansion of the Cistercian order in twelfth-century Europe; provocative because it brazenly upends received narratives, two generations of accumulated monastic scholarship."—Speculum

About the Author

Constance Hoffman Berman is Professor of History at the University of Iowa and the 1999 May Brodbeck Fellow in the Humanities.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; First Edition edition (January 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812235347
• ISBN-13: 978-0812235340
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,204,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rewriting the history of the Twelfth Century, April 28, 2002

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Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cistercian Evolution: The Invention of a Religious Order in Twelfth-Century Europe (The Middle Ages Series) (Hardcover)

The commonly held view of the creation of the Cistercian Order has several cherished elements: a foundation date for the order in the early 1100s during the lifetime of Bernard of Clairvaux; the rapid spread of this novel form of monasticism based on 'apostolic gestation' (a mother abbey sends out an abbot and 6 or 12 monks to found a new abbey); the settlement of new abbeys in the waste and disused lands of Europe; strong central control by the General Chapter; and the almost complete lack of women's foundations in the early Cistercian Order.

This well written volume turns this potted history on its head. The author re-examines the earliest foundation documents of the Order and individual monasteries in southern France to compose an entirely different history of the Order's early years. The concept of the Order itself was not invented until after Bernard's death and the General Chapter did not exert control until the last third of the Twelfth Century. In a far cry from the traditional history, the author finds evidence that the Order spread primarily by incorporating pre-existing foundations including many double houses as well as women's foundations. The incorporation of pre-existing monastic communities certainly better explains the Cistercian's amazingly rapid spread and success. Instead of colonizing the wastelands of Europe, the Order took over areas already under cultivation.

There are more surprises in this volume besides those mentioned above. The concepts of equality and charity, exemption from tithes, and other cherished myths of the Order are scrutinized using primary documents. The book focuses primarily on southern France, the cradle of the Cistercians, and deals extensively with women's monasteries and the Cistercian's foundation myth's silence about them.

An excellent read and an essential book for anyone interested in the history of the Twelfth Century or the Cistercians.