Monasticism

Sources

The Monastic Movement in Christianity. Monasticism developed between the fourth and fifth centuries, as the Christian Church was increasingly integrated into the world around it. The Desert Fathers such as Anthony of Egypt, the Celtic monks and missionaries such as St. Columban, and the developers of monastic guidelines such as St. Benedict of Nursia were among the early monastics who influenced the medieval tradition. During the early Middle Ages there arose a distinction between hermitical monasticism, where monks lived solitary lives, and cenobitic monasticism, where monks lived in common with other monks. Cenobitic monasticism was particularly influential in the medieval West from the ninth century, while the Greek East continued to have a strong hermetic tradition. Behind cenobitic monasticism was the idea that the act of living together might be an instrument of perfection, even as it allowed for mutual assistance, both spiritually and mentally.

A Monk’s Role. In the West a conception of the monastery’s role in a Christian society was developed by the sixth century and continued throughout the Middle Ages. This ideal saw the monastery as a spiritual citadel, a refuge for silence, prayer, and work. When a monk entered this fortress, he abandoned all worldly ties. Frequently, monasteries required that monks who went outside the monastery were not to speak of what they saw when they returned, and monastic clothing was designed to keep a monk’s face from prying eyes—and to make it difficult for a monk to see other than straight ahead. Such distance from the world was not viewed as selfish, however. An ideal monk was seen as a spiritual warrior, devoted to prayer and good works that earned divine benefits for all Christians. In this sense the monk was a soldier of Christ who battled the corruptions of the world. In his battle for Christian souls, the monk was chiefly concerned with the opus Dei (work of God), which consisted primarily of common prayer at set times throughout the day. But the monastery was also meant to be a self-sufficient community, in which the monk might work manually in order to provide for his needs and those of his brethren; his work might also be intellectual and, if he were able, he might have copied books that served as the cultural and spiritual formation of the community. The abbot governed the monastic community following a strictly paternal model and was assisted by monks holding various offices. Despite these spiritual roles, monks also had great influence in secular society. Monks became the developers of advanced agrarian techniques, carried out the conversion of the rural population to Christianity, and served as the chief agents of preservation of ancient culture through their copying of ancient manuscripts.

Monastic Rules. Monastic communities were organized following rules developed by the ostensible founders of their community. Throughout the Middle Ages, especially through the tenth century, the most influential of these monastic rules was that formulated by St. Benedict of Nursia: the Benedictine Rule. He composed the rule for his monastic community at Monte Cassino in Italy between 530 and 560; over the next several centuries his rule was adopted in the vast majority of western monasteries and influenced many nonmonastic religious communities as well. Reform movements in medieval monasteries often started with the Benedictine Rule as a model and altered it

to suit their needs. There were other important rules as well. The rule attributed to St. Augustine was extremely influential in the later Middle Ages, and modifications of the Benedictine Rule, such as the Carta Caritatis (the charter of charity) of the Cistercians, gained powerful lives of their own in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Both St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi wrote rules for their communities as soon as the Pope approved their formation. These rules were important not only because they regulated, in great detail, how the monks lived, but also because they expressed a vision of the monks’ roles in society and in Christian spirituality.

Monks and Property. As with other Church institutions, monasteries had a complicated relationship to property and material goods. In the vows a man took when becoming a monk were oaths of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Often, in their pursuit of solitude, monks were pioneers moving into uninhabited or sparsely inhabited parts of Europe to establish their communities. In other cases, however, pious laity awarded the monks plots of land. Possession of land in medieval Europe came with a series of responsibilities that monks could not in good conscience ignore. Whether peasants came with these land grants or peasants settled in areas the monks had pioneered, monasteries were soon saddled with the burdens of medieval lordship, such as gathering taxes, supervising workers, enforcing laws in the communities surrounding them, and providing religious services. Given the structures of medieval society, it was impossible to ignore these demands and morally reprehensible to abandon peasant communities to marauding bands. Monasteries, thus, frequently took on the same duties as medieval lordships, including hospitality for travelers, military protection, and law enforcement. Yet, monasteries also enjoyed the profits that came from their lands. Individual monks were supposed to be poor, and many were, but monasteries were frequently enormously rich. Not all medieval Europeans were bothered by this situation either. Nobles frequently endowed monastic communities with the provision that members of their families would become abbots or abbesses, and some monasteries demanded initiation fees that were affordable only for nobles. One such place was the French “royal abbey” at Fontevrault that sheltered such figures as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England and Duchess of Aquitaine. Faced with the contradiction between ideals and practice, monastic reformers frequently grappled with the question of poverty, and by the later Middle Ages popular opinion gradually turned against the older, wealthy monastic communities. At the same time, however, medieval Europeans still tried to get their sons and daughters places in these abbeys.

Monks and Government. Monastic relations with property were further complicated because of the important roles certain medieval monks played in governmental administration. At the time of Charlemagne’s death in 814 the best-known monk in western Europe was St. Benedict of Aniane, a friend and councilor of Louis I, Charlemagne’s successor. Benedict’s role represents one career opportunity available to medieval monks: government official. Such activity required a dispensation, an exemption from some parts of the monastic vows provided by the head of the order or the Pope. Medieval lords were quite eager to enlist qualified monks into their service. Monks, particularly those who had been abbots at major monasteries, had years of education and experience at running complicated bureaucracies. They knew how to develop long- and short-term strategies, were familiar with the major political players in a region, brought some of their own alliances, and could conduct themselves appropriately in noble society. Moreover, a monk might have family members that he wanted to help, but he was rarely interested in establishing a dynasty in the way that secular lords would. For these reasons, medieval rulers turned to monks such as Abbots Suger of St. Denis, Lanfranc of Canterbury, and Anselm of Canterbury to serve as their chief ministers.

The Cluniac Reform. Beginning in the tenth century, several new monastic foundations were established. The best known of these foundations was Cluny, founded by William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine, in 910. Although a Benedictine community, the charters for Cluny made several important changes to the Benedictine Rule, especially in the centralization of its monastic government. Monasteries who followed the Cluniac reform and monasteries founded by Cluniac monks remained under the sovereignty of the abbot of Cluny; their abbots and monks had to be approved by Cluny, and every monk had to spend some years at Cluny. Cluniac monasticism stressed individual simplicity among its monks, but liturgical and ritual complexity among the monastic community as a whole. Additional devotional exercises were added to the six a day already required by the Benedictine Rule. Cluny became known for its wealth and the beauty and complexity of its religious services. By the twelfth century, on some of the important feasts days of the Church year—such as that of St. Peter, to whom the abbey of Cluny was dedicated—the monks were required to pray from sunset to dawn of the next day without interruption. Even on ordinary days, much of the Cluniac monk’s day was taken up by prayer, without leaving much time for reading or other activities. These activities took place in an abbey church that was the largest in Christendom when it was consecrated in 1131. The impressiveness of the monk’s public prayer helped make its support a good investment in the eyes of contemporaries and extended the influence of Cluny throughout Europe. In addition, Cluny was fortunate to have a series of brilliant and influential abbots during its first two hundred years. For example, the eighth abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable (1092–1156), instituted reforms in the order, sheltered Peter Abelard, defended the Jews, and refused to have anything to do with the Second Crusade, arguing that the Muslims should be met with rational scholars instead of armies. He served as a papal envoy throughout Europe and wrote hymns, religious tracts, and many letters, more than two hundred of which still survive.

Reactions to Cluny. In its early years other monasteries often asked Cluny to send monks to show them how things were done in the Cluniac style. By the end of the tenth century, Cluny began to exert its influence in a more formal manner. In traditional Benedictine monasticism, each monastery was autonomous, ruled by its own abbot. Cluny decided to found or accept monasteries that were not independent; each of these communities was intended to be directly subject to the abbot of Cluny. After the mid eleventh century, the abbot of Cluny was formally the ruler of more than nine hundred monasteries, largely in France and Switzerland, but also in Britain, Spain, and Italy. It is interesting that the ideal of independence from secular interference in monastic life characterized Cluny from the moment of its foundation. Duke William of Aquitaine, in establishing the house and dedicating it to St. Peter, renounced his right, as founder, to elect the abbot of the new monastery; he asked his own kinsmen, the king of France, bishops, and the Pope to refrain from interfering in anyway in the life of the abbey. He placed it under the protection of Saints Peter and Paul and the popes, who were asked to excommunicate anyone who interfered with the liberties of the monastery. Before the end of the tenth century the popes had accepted the duke’s request and even declared Cluny independent of the supervision of the local bishop. Cluny became one of the seed houses of reform and of resistance to traditional involvement of lay people in electing abbots. This independence was one of the sources of the agenda of the eleventh-century reformers, who, in effect, attempted to make the autonomy of Cluny the norm for all sorts of ecclesiastical institutions and bishoprics themselves. Also, they said, papal control over the rest of the Church should essentially mirror the control of the abbot of Cluny over the daughter houses. This kind of control was regarded as the necessary safeguard against contamination of the Church’s function to ensure the authenticity of the religious experience of the faithful.

The Cistercians and Bernard of Clairvaux. Despite Cluny’s great influence, by the early eleventh century there were reactions against Cluny that led to the formation of new monastic communities, such as the Carthusians. Probably the most influential medieval reaction against Cluny occurred in 1098 with the foundation of the Cistercians by Robert of Molesmes. Among the early members was the best-known medieval Cistercian, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). At the age of twenty-seven Bernard was sent with other young monks to form the fourth Cistercian monastery at Citeaux in what is now eastern France. Clairvaux and the community Bernard led became the models for Cistercian reform. Like the Cluniac Rule, the Cistercian Rule called for centralization and accountability to the head of the Cistercian order. The Cistercians were, in fact, the first to use the term order to describe all those who followed their rule. Unlike the Cluniacs, Cistercians placed a far higher priority on poverty and physical mortification, a difference that led to an exchange of letters between Bernard and Peter the Venerable. Although most Cistercians distanced themselves from worldly concerns, Bernard was pulled into them because of his reputation for personal piety. One of the most influential clergymen of his generation, Bernard inspired reform in bishoprics and monasteries throughout Europe, and he sent groups of Cistercians to establish monasteries in Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Portugal, and Italy. He disputed with Peter Abelard and raised troops for the Second Crusade. His activity at the Council of Troyes, called to resolve disputes within the French church, led one cardinal to complain, “It is not fitting that noisy and troublesome frogs should come out of their marshes to trouble the Holy See and the cardinals.” Bernard the frog and the Cistercians, however, had far more supporters than detractors.

Nuns. Just as male religious communities had been part of the earliest Christian communities, so too were communities of women. In fact, early medieval monasteries sometimes included male and female communities that had separate sleeping quarters but shared the monastery church and other facilities. It was even possible in the ninth and tenth centuries for a female abbess to rule over both monks and nuns, although it was exceptional, and the abbess was generally of noble descent. Eleventh- and twelfth-century reform movements gradually led to the complete separation of male and female monastic communities. Women entered monastic communities for much the same reason as men: personal piety, social security, and family pressure. Monasteries provided nuns with a sure livelihood and families with an individual who would certainly pray for them—an inside track to God. Although nuns tended to be less involved in intellectual pursuits than their male counterparts, some—such as Heloise, Hildegard of Bingen, and Mechtild of Hackeborn—made valuable contributions to medieval thought and piety. One important difference between male monasteries and female nunneries was that women’s communities tended on the average to be poorer, not attracting the type of lucrative or consistent donations that their male counterparts did.

Sources

H. E.J. Cowdrey, The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).

G. R. Evans, Bernard of Clairvaux (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, second edition (London & New York: Longman, 1989).

Ludo J. R. Milis, Angelic Monks and Earthly Men: Monasticism and Its Meaning to Medieval Society (Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, 1992).