The order, a reformed Benedictine sect, was founded
in Cîteaux, Burgundy in 1098 by St. Stephen Harding, an Englishman, and
St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Born in 1090, at Fontaines, near Dijon, France; St.
Bernard of Clairvaux died at Clairvaux, 21 August, 1153. His parents were Tescelin,
lord of Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both belonging to the highest nobility
of Burgundy.
St. Robert, Abbot of Molesmes, had founded, in 1098, the monastery
of Cîteaux, about four leagues from Dijon, with the purpose of restoring
the Rule of St. Benedict in all its rigour. Born about the yeare 1029, at Champagne,
France, of noble parents who bore the names of Thierry and Ermengarde; d. at Molesme,
17 April, 1111. In 1068, St. Robert succeeded Hunaut II as Abbot of St. Michael
de Tonnerre, in the Diocese of Langres. In 1098 Robert, still unable to reform
his rebellious monks, obtained from Hugues, Archbishop of Lyons and Legate of
the Holy See, authority to found a new order on new lines. Twenty-one religious
left Molesme and set out joyfully for a desert called Citeaux in the Diocese of
Chalons, and the Abbey of Citeaux (q.v.) was founded 21 March, 1098. The feast
was fixed at first on 17 April, but later it was transferred to 29 April. The
Abbey of Molesme existed up to the French Revolution.
St. Alberic, who
gave the monks the white habit and placed the monastery immediately under the
protection of the Holy See. Under St. Alberic's successor, St. Stephen Harding,
the number of subjects was increased by the arrival of St. Bernard and his thirty
companions, all young noblemen of Burgundy, and the order commenced to send out
colonies. La Ferté (Fermitas), in the Diocese of Chalons (today of Autun),
Pontigny (Pontiniacum) in the Diocese of Auxere, Clairvaux (Claravallis), in the
Diocese of Langres (today of Troyes), and Morimond (Morimundus), in the same Diocese
of Langres, were the first four daughters of Cîteaux, which, in their turn,
gave birth to many monasteries. The abbots of these houses were called the first
four Fathers of the order, and the "Charter of Charity", work of St. Stephen,
conferred upon them the right of visiting the Abbey of Cîteaux. Popes and
kings bestowed many honours and privileges upon Cîteaux- being the mother-abbey
of the Cistercian Order, the abbot was recognized as head and superior general
of the whole order.
Immediately after the deliverance of Jerusalem, the
Crusaders, considering their vow fulfilled, returned in a body to their homes.
The defense of this precarious conquest, surrounded as it was by Mohammedan neighbours,
remained. In 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II, Hugues de Payens, a knight
of Champagne, and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken
in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom.
The Templars had as yet neither distinctive habit nor rule. Hugues de Payens journeyed
to the West to seek the approbation of the Church and to obtain recruits. At the
Council of Troyes (1128), at which he assisted and at which St. Bernard was the
leading spirit, the Knights Templars adopted the Rule of St. Benedict, as recently
reformed by the Cistercians. They accepted not only the three perpetual vows,
besides the crusader's vow, but also the austere rules concerning the chapel,
the refectory, and the dormitory. They also adopted the white habit of the Cistercians,
adding to it a red cross.
In 1116 twelve monks from Clairvaux installed
themselves at Trois-Fontaines in the Diocese of Chalons, under the guidance of
Roger, one of the first converts St. Bernard by his eloquence had attracted from
the celebrated school of Stephen of Vitry. In 1119 Bernard sent another colony
to found Fontenay in the Diocese of Autun, today in that of Troyes. Then were
founded Foigny in the Diocese of Noyon; Cherlieu in the Diocese of Besançon; Longpont
in the Diocese of Soissons; Vauclair in the diocese of Laon; La Grace-Dieu in
the Diocese of Saintes; Buzay in the Diocese of Nantes; Bonmont in the Diocese
of Geneva (Switzerland); Hautecombe in the Diocese of Geneva, today in that of
Chambéry; Chiaravalle in the Diocese of Milan; Moreruela in the Diocese
of Zamora (Spain); Rievaulx and Fountains in the Diocese of York (England). Towards
1153 it became necessary to extend the limits of Clairvaux and erect other claustral
buildings. The new buildings were quickly constructed.
Upon a visit to St
Bernard, Malachy, the archbishop of Armagh, was greatly impressed by the uniformity
of the Cistercian order. Malachy was convinced that such uniformity and discipline
would dispel corruption, that which the earlier Irish monasteries had not. Influenced
by the continental style of architecture Malachy commenced in 1140 to construct
a church of stone in Bangor. As early as 1142 the first Cistercian monks, consisting
of both Irish and Frenchmen, arrived at Mellifont. Donough O`Carroll, the King
of Uriel, was the chief benefactor of the monastery at Mellifont. So successful
were the Cistercians in Ireland that within thirty years fourteen Cistercian communities
had evolved. The daughter houses of Mellifont developed as follows, Bective
(1147), Baltinglass
(1148), Inislounaght
(1148), Monasteranenagh
(1148), Grellachdinach (1148), Boyle
(1161), Kilbeggan (1150) and Newry
(1153). The Cistercian monks were attracted to the remoteness of Ireland. The
monks were free to work the land and were independent from local chiefs. However,
the patronage of four of the five provincial kings of Ireland revealed the popularity
of the order.
Several congregations and monasteries, which had existed
before the Order of Cîteaux, became affiliated to it, among them the Congregations
of Savigny and Obazine, which were incorporated in the order in 1147. St. Bernard
and other Cistercians took a very active part, too, in the establishment of the
great military orders, and supplied them with their constitutions and their laws.
Among these various orders of chivalry may be mentioned the Templars, the Knights
of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcantara, of Avis, of St. Maurice, of the Wing
of St. Michael, of Montessa, etc.
One of the few leaders of Western Europe
who refused to be daunted by the failure of the Crusade was St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
against whom was vented so much of the bitterness over the failure of the Crusade.
Shortly after the outcome of the Crusade became known in the West, St. Bernard
wrote a defiant apologia, defending the role he had played in preaching
and organizing the recent expedition. Despite St. Bernard's courageous resignation,
the results of the Crusade were indeed ominous. The First Crusade had succeeded
in achieving its objectives and it bad been possible to found Latin states in
the East largely because the Moslems had been divided against one another and
had thus been almost completely unable to cooperate effectively to stave off their
Western foes. The end of the Second Crusade saw the Moslems preparing to unite,
for the first time, against the Latin intruders in their midst, while the Latins,
for their part, were divided sharply against one another. Even more important,
perhaps, was the deterioration of relationships between Byzantium and the Crusaders
and between the princes of the West and the rulers of the Latin states in the
East. The Second Crusade, in fact, was destined to be the last Crusade in which
the armies were accompanied by large groups of pilgrims and other noncombatants.
Henceforth, the Crusades were to become more strictly military expeditions, whose
objectives were limited, military ones.
In 1152 the Order of Cîteaux
already counted 350 abbeys, not including the granges and priories dependent upon
the principal abbeys. Among the causes which contributed to this prosperity of
the new order, the influence of St. Bernard evidently holds the first place. The
general chapter was an assembly of all the abbots of the order, even those who
resided farthest from Cîteaux. This assembly, during the Golden Age, took
place annually, according to the prescriptions of the Charter of Charity. In 1153
St. Bernard died but left a legacy of three hundred and fifty new houses. Fifty
two of these were in England and Wales, five in Scotland and Man and ten in Ireland.
The
Cistercian monks lived strict lives. After one novice yeare the monks took a vow
of poverty, chastity and obedience. The monks farmed land directly, not for profit,
only to maintain themselves. Their days were centred on a rigorous routine of
prayer, labour, silence and self-discipline. The strict statutes of the Cistercian
order forbade any form of decoration that would distract the monks from prayer.
However, within a very short period it appeared that the Irish Cistercian order
had impaired these rules. Stephen of Lexington, during the Conspiracy of Mellifont,
c. 1216-1227, reported many incidents of debauchery amongst the Irish monks. Although,
his experience may have been subjected to the struggle between the Irish and Anglo-Normans.
Saint Bridget`s Abbey on Clare Island is elaborately furnished with a piscina,
sedilia, carved figure heads inserted into the south wall over the sedilia, ogee
and cusped headed lancet windows and a traceried screen tomb canopy. The two periods
of wallpaintings on the side walls and chancel vault were originally coloured
and animated. St Bridget`s Abbey was influenced by its "mother" house in Abbey
Knockmoy, Galway. The wallpaintings on Clare Island Abbey are typical of the style
of those at Abbey Knockmoy. It was Cathal Crovedearg O`Connor (Wine Red Hand),
King of Connacht, who built the abbey in 1189. He founded it following his victory
over the Anglo-Normans in the Battle of Knockroe. Cistercian monks travelled from
Boyle Abbey, Roscommon, to serve the new abbey. In 1539 Henry VIII enforced the
dissolution of the monasteries in the Pale and Ireland. Many of the monasteries
were destroyed within this period. St Bridget`s Abbey may have continued to be
used many years after the dissolution.
The general chapters were held every
yeare up to 1411, when they became intermittent. Their decisions were codified.
The first codification was that of 1133, under the title "Instituta Capituli Generalis".
The second, which bears the title "Institutiones Capituli Generalis", was commenced
in the yeare 1203 by the Abbot Arnoud I, and was promulgated in 1240. The third,
"Libelli Antiquarum Definitionum Capituli Generalis Ordinis Cisterciencis", was
issued in 1289 and in 1316. Finally, the general chapter of 1350 promulgated the
"Novellae Definitiones" in conformity with the Constitution of Benedict XII, "Fulgens
ut stella" of 12 July, 1355. The regular visits also contributed much to the maintenance
of unity and fervour. Every abbey was visited once a yeare by the abbot of the
house on which it immediately depended. Cîteaux was visited by the four
first fathers, that is to say, by the Abbots of La Ferté, of Pontigny,
of Clairvaux, and Morimond.
Noted for locating their monasteries in wild,
remote regions, the Cistercians eschewed anything that was not plain. Their clothing
was unbleached, undyed wool, their food was simple (no meat, fish, or eggs) and
they slept on bare boards in unheated cells. They labored in the fields rather
than studying in the cloisters.Their churches were undecorated, with no towers
or stained glass. They developed a productive system of agriculture, and their
abbeys grew wealthy dispite their expressed desire for poverty. Their churches
were undecorated, and Cistercian architecture much imitated
The Cistercians
instituted the use of 'conversi', lay brothers who were turned from the service
of the world to the service of God. They did only manual labor and adhered to
a relaxed regimen, being excused from some of the normal religious requirements
of the regular monks. The use of these 'conversi' was adopted by other orders,
such as the Premonstratensians. The Trappist monks are a later reform of the Cistercians.
They are called the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. There are,
today, a number of impressive Cistercian remains, including: Fountains, Rievaulx,
Furness, Tintern and Valle Crucis.
The decadence of the order was due to
several causes during the 1300s, the first of which was the large number of monasteries,
often-times situated in the most widely distant countries, which prevented the
"Fathers Immediate" from making the regular visits to all the houses of their
filiations, while some of the abbots could not assist every yeare at the general
chapter. But the principal cause of the decline of the order (which is based on
unity and charity) was the spirit of dissension which animated certain superiors.
Some abbots, even not far from Cîteaux, explained in a particular sense,
and that adapted to their own point of view, certain points of the Charter of
Charity. The solicitude of the Roman pontiffs themselves who tried to reestablish
harmony among the superiors, was not always successful.
The
monks of Cîteaux created the vineyards of Clos-Vougeot and Romanée,
the most celebrated of Burgundy. Cîteaux has been a nursery of saints and
illustrious personages. From St. Robert to Blessed Guy III, twenty-three abbots
are venerated in the order as saints and blessed. Lambert (1155-61), Gilbert (1163-67),
Alexander (1168-75), and Arnaud I (1201-12) are recognized for the eminent services
rendered to the popes and to the kings. Six abbots of Cîteaux were honoured
with the Roman purple. Henri (1304-16) and Jean IV de Martigny (1405-28) were
illustrious for their knowledge in the ecumenical councils. Guy d'Autun (1460-62),
Hymbert Martin de Losne (1462-76), Jean IV de Cirey (1476-1501) were the courageous
defenders of the order against the practice of Commendam. Others signalized themselves
by their zeal for the restoration of discipline and by their reformatory tendencies:
Edme I de la Croix (1585-1604), Nicholas II Boucherat (1604-25), Claude Vaussin
(1643-70), John XII Petit (1670-92), Nicholas Larcher (1692-1712). But its past
glory and the regularity which still existed at the end of the eighteenth century
could not save Cîteaux. It is remarkable, however, that with the exception
of one lay brother, none of the religious of Cîteaux accepted the pension
of the State. On 4 May, 1791, the abbey was sold for the first time as national
property. The sixty-second and last abbot was Dom Francis Trouve (1748-90). Having
lost all hope of saving his monastery, he begged Pius VI, 25 July, 1790, to transfer
his powers to Dom Robert Schlecht, Abbot of Salmansweiler, a precaution which
left life and hope to the other provinces. Dom Trouvé died 27 April, 1797.
Illustrious
persons were buried at Clairvaux in the livery of the poor of Christ, among them
Henry of France, brother of King Louis VII; Alexander of Cologne, who was later
one of the successors of St. Bernard of Clairvaux; Henry Murdach who became Abbot
of Vauclair and later Archbishop of York; Philip, Archdeacon of Liège,
etc. Religious even of the other orders, flocked there and the tomb of St. Bernard.
The Congregation of Savigny, founded in 1105 by Blessed Vital of Mortagne, with
seventeen houses, became affiliated to Clairvaux in 1147, as also that of Obazine,
founded by St. Stephen of Durfort in 1142. Affonso I, King of Portugal, in 1143
made his kingdom a vassal of the Abbey of Clairvaux and obliged his successors
to pay to it every year, on the feast of the Annunciation, fifty marabitains of
gold. In 1148, in memory of the victory over the Moors which he had gained the
preceding yeare through the prayers of St. Bernard, he founded the Abbey of Alcobaça,
whose abbots were always Grand Almoners of the Kings of Portugal. St. Bernard
at his death, in 1153, left at Clairvaux seven hundred religious.
Together
with the congregations which separated from Cîteaux there were five or six
others which, while remaining subject to the jurisdiction of the parent house,
were legislated for by provincial or national chapters. Chief among these congregations
were those of Northern Germany, the Strict Observance, and La Trappe. The Congregation
of Northern Germany was erected in 1595 by Nicholas II (Boucherat), Abbot of Cîteaux,
at the desire of Pope Clement VIII, in the monastery of Furstenfeld. It comprised
four provinces ruled by the abbots, vicars of the general. It counted twenty-two
abbeys, only three of which survived the revolutionary tempest, and now form part
of the Common Observance of Cîteaux, as the Cistercian province of Austria-Hungary.
The Congregation of Strict Observance, resulting from the efforts for reform
of the Abbots of Charmoye and Châtillon, was established at Clairvaux by Denis
Largentier, abbot of this monastery (1615). The Abbot of Cîteaux, Nicholas
Boucherat, approved the reform and permitted it to hold special assemblies and
to choose a vicar-general with four assistant generals. The general chapter of
Cîteaux in 1623 praised it highly, Cardinal Richelieu became its protector,
and the popes gave it encouragement. Richelieu represented the clergy of Poitou
in the States General of 1614, where his political career began. There he was
the mouth-piece of the Church, and in a celebrated discourse demanded that bishops
and prelates be summoned to the royal councils, that the distribution of ecclesiastical
benefices to the laity be forbidden, that the Church be exempt from taxation,
that Protestants who usurped churches or had their coreligionists interred in
them be punished, and that the Decrees of the Council of Trent be promulgated
throughout France. On 19 April, 1624, he re-entered the Council of Ministers,
and on 12 August, 1624, was made its president. Richelieu's policy can be reduced
to two principal ideas: the domestic unification of France and opposition to the
House of Austria. At home he had to contend with constant conspiracies in which
Maria de' Medici, Queen Anne of Austria, Gaston d'Orléans (the king's brother),
and the highest nobles of the court were involved. The executions of Marillac
(1632), Montmorency (1632), Cinq-Mars and of de Thou (1642) intimidated the enemies
of the cardinal. He had also to contend with the Protestants who were forming
a state within the state (HUGUENOTS). The capitulation of La Rochelle and the
peace of Alais (28 June, 1629) annihilated Protestantism as a political party.
With
the co-operation of the Benedictine Gregoire Tarisse, Richelieu devoted himself
seriously to the reform of the Benedictines. Named coadjutor to the Abbot of Cluny
in 1627, and Abbot of Cluny in 1629, he called to this monastery the Reformed
Benedictines of Saint-Vannes. He proposed forming the congregations of Saint-Vannes
and Saint-Maur into one body, of which he was to have been superior. Only half
of this project was accomplished, however, when in 1636 he succeeded in uniting
the Order of Cluny with the Congregation of Saint-Maur. From 1622 Richelieu was
proviseur of the Sorbonne, and was in virtue of this office head of the Association
of Doctors of the Sorbonne. He had the Sorbonne entirely rebuilt between 1626
and 1629, and between 1635 and 1642 built the church of the Sorbonne, in which
he is now buried.
In 1636 Richelieu founded the Academie Française. He
really professed the doctrine called Duvalism after the theologian Duval, who
admitted at the same time the supreme power of the pope and the supreme power
of the king and the divine right of both. In the dissensions between Rome and
the Gallicans he most frequently acted as mediator. When in 1626 a book by the
Jesuit Sanctarel appeared in Paris, affirming the right of the popes to depose
kings for wrong-doing, heresy, or incapacity, it was burned in the Place de Greve;
Father Coton and the three superiors of the Jesuits houses summoned before the
Parlement were forced to repudiate the work.
In 1663, Cîteaux received
an important member in the person of Abbot de Rancé, who introduced the
Strict Observance into the Abbey of La Trappe in the Diocese of Seez, adding to
it other very severe practices.
After the Reformation, Clairvaux became the principal seate of the strict Observance.
At the time of the Revolution (1790) Clairvaux had only 26 professed religious,
counting the abbot, Dom Louis-Marie Rocourt, 10 lay brothers, and 10 affiliated
pensioners of the house; 19 of the religious and all the lay brothers were secularized.
After the Revolution the abbot retired to Bar-sur-Aube, where he died in obscurity,
the fifty-first and last Abbot of Clairvaux, 6 April, 1824. In 1790 Clairvaux
had in affiliation in France ninety-two houses with 864 religious. This abbey
had given to the Church one pope, Eugene III, fifteen cardinals, and a great number
of archbishops and bishops. Clairvaux became the property of the State, and during
the Restoration its buildings were converted into a prison.