Studies In Medieval Cistercian History

John R. Sommerfeldt's love of medieval scholarship and his commitment to the encouragement of young scholars are reflected in his teaching and his published works on Bernard of Clairvaux, and in the annual Kalamazoo International Medieval Studies Congress. Initiated in 1962 as a small regional conference, the Congress now draws some three thousand medievalists from around the world each year. Colleagues, former students, and friends made during Congresses across the years offer their work in his honor.

The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe offers an accessible and engaging history of the Order from its beginnings in the twelfth century through to the early sixteenth century. Unlike most other existing volumes on this subject it gives a nuanced analysis of the late medieval Cistercian experience as well as the early years of the Order. Jamroziak argues that the story of the Cistercian Order in the Middle Ages was not one of a ‘Golden Age’ followed by decline, nor was the true ‘Cistercian spirit’ exclusively embedded in the early texts to remain unchanged for centuries. Instead she shows how the Order functioned and changed over time as an international organisation, held together by a novel 'management system'; from Estonia in the east to Portugal in the west, and from Norway to Italy. The ability to adapt and respond to these very different social and economic conditions is what made the Cistercians so successful. This book draws upon a wide range of primary sources, as well as scholarly literature in several languages, to explore the following key areas: the degree of centralisation versus local specificity how much the contact between monastic communities and lay people changed over time how the concept of reform was central to the Medieval history of the Cistercian Order This book will appeal to anyone interested in Medieval history and the Medieval Church more generally as well as those with a particular interest in monasticism.

Enemies.--Hays, R. W. The Welsh monasteries and the Edwardian conquest.--Desmond L. A. The statute of Carlisle and the Cistercians, 1298-1369.--Telesca, W. J. The Cisterican dilemma at the close of the Middle Ages: Gallicanism or Rome.--Volz, C. Martin Luther's attitude toward Bernard of Clairvaux.--Bibliography of studies by Jeremiah F. O'Sullivan (p. 205).

The Cistercians (White Monks) were the most successful monastic experiment to emerge from the tumultuous intellectual and religious fervour of the 11th and 12th centuries. This book seeks to explore the phenomenon that was the Cistercian Order.

This book surveys the full panorama of ten centuries of Christian monastic life. It moves from the deserts of Egypt and the Frankish monasteries of early medieval Europe to the religious ruptures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the reforms of the later Middle Ages. Throughout that story the book balances a rich sense of detail with a broader synthetic view. It presents the history of religious life and its orders as a complex braid woven from multiple strands: individual and community, spirit and institution, rule and custom, church and world. The result is a synthesis that places religious life at the center of European history and presents its institutions as key catalysts of Europe’s move toward modernity.