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The vitality to be found among monks and nuns in the nineteenth century was less in the historic orders than in small groups gathered for particular purposes of prayer, promotion of a particular devotion, education, evangelism, or care for the sick or needy. The numbers of religious grew through the century, but not necessarily in the old orders, and despite the political difficulties, dissolutions and expulsions they suffered in most Catholic countries. Discussion of each major order in turn shows how they adapted or failed to adapt to the modern world and the tensions between centralization and local autonomy.

This chapter focuses on the history of interpretation of the Song of Songs, with a particular attention given to Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs. It also considers the important contribution of Origen in the history of biblical interpretation, as well as contemporary interpretations (e.g., feminist) of this poetic book in Hebrew Scripture.

This chapter describes springtime on the prairie. Canadian geese ply flyways, check ancestral routes against hard memories, against ribbons of rivers. They herald the season, trumpeting the first push of Gulf air. Those who do not live to see first thaw keep the funeral parlors busy. The chapter then talks about the arrival of monks, émigrés come from out of state to tend the monastery's hardwood groves. The monks have become naturalized citizens of a state that specializes in death and dying. For a price, the monks of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance are pleased to offer an exclusive line of custom-designed caskets and urns for University of Notre Dame alumni and their families.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who almost defies characterization. Monk, abbot, adviser of kings and popes, author of some of the finest Latin prose to emerge from the Middle Ages, he was a man of many talents. At first glance he can seem abrasive, overconfident, and almost arrogant. But as this book shows, he is a point of departure for European culture in its search for faith, meaning, and community. Any history of Western Europe in the twelfth century has to include Bernard and his almost frenetic activities. Bernard deserves reevaluation as a person and participant in the history of Christian life and spirituality. His inner life and external actions illuminate his own time and provide a context for ours. In addition to his sophisticated theology, his moving sermons, and his influence among kings and popes, Bernard can plausibly be considered the first European. Through his vision and talent for inspiring people to work together, he helped build Christianity's first continent-wide monastic order, the Cistercians, whose monasteries extended from Ireland to Sicily and Norway.

This chapter examines the development of eremitical mysticism in the British Isles. Focusing on the case of Peter Abelard (1079–1142), it considers the link between eroticism and mysticism. After providing a background on the development of anchoritic spirituality up to the time of the Cistercians, the chapter discusses the origins of the specific reforming order of the Cistercians in the context of the revival of eremiticism. It then explores the anchoritic form of life by turning to two English figures from the twelfth century, Wulfric of Haselbury and Godric of Finchale, and to the English recluse Christina of Markyate (born between 1096 and 1098). It argues that the anchoritic idea exerted a profound influence in England, which produced such works as The Cloud of Unknowing and the writings of Walter Hilton, which were specifically addressed to anchorites.

This chapter provides an overview of early Cistercian theology in England, focusing on key figures and ideas that will be important for the subsequent history of English mysticism. It begins with Stephen Harding, an Englishman of distinguished ancestry and a central figure in the founding of the Cistercian order. It then turns to Bernard of Clairvaux, through whom the biblical orientation of the Cistercians would gain ever greater currency in Europe, and two of the most significant figures who were connected to—and deeply influenced by—him, including William of St. Thierry and Guerric of Igny. It also examines the works of Aelred of Rievaulx, including The Mirror of Charity (Liber de speculo caritatis) and Rule of Life for a Recluse (De institutione inclusarum). Finally, it analyzes the poetic diction of the hymn Dulcis Iesu memoria and how Cistercian spirituality was “transposed” into the vernacular texts of the so-called Wooing Group and the related Ancrene Wisse.

This chapter explains the origins of the military orders, beginning with the Templars and Hospitallers, and moving on to Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcántara. It explains why the Templars were not warrior monks, but became, thanks to the support of the kingdom of Jerusalem, Bernard of Clairvaux, and the papacy, the first instantiation of ecclesiastical knighthood. The Hospitallers’ militarization is explored to show that they understood themselves differently than the Templars did. The respective foundation stories of the Iberian orders are analyzed, with particular attention to the frontier context of the middle of the twelfth century, the role of the Cistercians, and Santiago’s unique incorporation of women and family life. This leads to a comparative perspective between the five orders that shows how the fundamental structure of the military-religious life can best be described as ecclesiastical knighthood.

Simon’s crusades were animated by the programme of reform advocated by the Cistercians and certain Parisian theologians. His context was permeated by the reformers, especially in his close connections with the abbey of Vaux-de-Cernay. Concerns about just war, the liberation of the Holy Land, ecclesiastical liberty, sexual morality, and the purgation of heresy espoused by Cistercians and schoolmen were reflected in Simon’s career. He was, however, more than a simple cipher for ecclesiastical priorities: his campaigns and government were ambiguous in their attitude towards mercenaries and complicit in the problem of usury. Nevertheless, Simon’s crusades to both Syria and the Midi demonstrated a remarkable dedication to building a Christian republic according to the vision of the reformers.

As brethren devoted to advancing a shared religion, monks and secular clerics should in theory have worked harmoniously together. Instead, there was a bitter rivalry, marked by diatribes and insults and played out in a variety of specific disputes, including violent confrontations. In part, the rivalry was over resources, since throughout the long twelfth century monks were taking over collegiate churches, siphoning off income from many parish churches, and in some cases refusing to pay tithes. However, claims by secular clerics to superior authority within the church and by monks to superior morality also fostered conflict. Naturally enough, many monks and clerics opposed the rivalry, but it was still going strong in the early thirteenth century. On the whole, the secular clergy had the worst of the conflict, but the reputations of both sides were damaged, thus paving the way for the success of a new group, the friars.

Chapter 1 traces the patristic and early medieval exegesis of Galatians 6:17. It assesses how language and imagery were appropriated and developed by eleventh- and twelfth-century monastic theologians (especially Peter Damian) into a soteriological system of penance and redemption that focused on Christ’s wounds. Significantly, it looks at examples of stigmatization before Francis of Assisi. These cases vary in their form; they gradually move from stigmata being almost exclusively associated with the sacerdotal order in the early Middle Ages to being linked to the laity by the early thirteenth century as with the cases of Peter the Conversus and Mary of Oignies.

Chapter 3 analyses how stigmatization became predominantly linked to women and female spirituality. It considers the strong theological defence that evolved in the second half of the thirteenth century that asserted holy, virginal women were axiomatic stigmatics. It also inspects the religious lives of stigmatics that often consisted of routinized prayer, illness, and suffering. The nature of invisible stigmata is investigated; it is demonstrated that there is a connection between the development of invisible stigmatization and the increase in female stigmatics during the thirteenth century. As living icons of Christ, these women brought to mind the divine passion and inspired hope in human redemption. Illness and holiness blended into a powerful cocktail of salvation as represented in the stigmatic body. But it was not only their likeness to Christ, but also their likeness to Mary that was remarkable. As virgins, their flesh was sympathetic and open to wounding making them ideal bearers of stigmata.