The Collectarium's Monastic Setting

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Collectarium 24v-25r with the feast of St. Bernard, a founding member of the Cistercian order (25r l.11-13)

 

Monasticism in Medieval Europe: Benedictines and Cistercians

 

The collectarium holds prayers read at both daily and exceptional services shaping the monastic life based on rules first spelled out by St. Benedict. This book was made for the abbot of a Cistercian monastery near Parma, Italy. The Cistercian monastic order endeavored to follow the Rule of St. Benedict strictly.


The Benedictines

St. Benedict, who lived during the fifth and sixth centuries in Italy, was a key figure in Western monasticism. Although he founded the monastery at Monte Cassino in 529, where he lived out his life, he did not establish a monastic order. However, his work, the Rule of St. Benedict, was the first detailed piece of monastic legislation adapted to European needs. This work went on to define Western monasticism through the time of steady proliferation of religious orders between the 8th and 12th centuries.

Benedictine rule provided guidelines for a life of prayer and work (Ora et Labora) for a small community of monks surrounding a patriarchal abbot. The abbot, chosen by his monks, was directed to take counsel and care for the individual members. The Rule instituted the Divine Office (Opus Dei) as the chief task and the central act of the community, dividing the day into eight periods of public prayer including the singing of psalms and hymns and readings from the Bible. Periods in between the hours of the Divine Office were devoted to private prayer, religious reading, and work. The latter, which was originally manual labor to help sustain the practical needs of the community, grew in scope with the development of the monasteries, and extended to teaching, art, copying manuscripts, and all kinds of scholarly research.

The Rule is marked by prudence and humanity. It gives guidelines for the treatment of children, the sick, and the disobedient. It discourages the excessive acts of self-denial that were common in Eastern monasticism. Instead, it encourages communal life, a simple but adequate diet, and a reasonable routine of daily work, prayer, and sleep.  Its workability, moderation, and humaneness were a large part of what made Benedictine monasticism become so widespread and successful.

By the 10th century, Benedictine monasteries were organized into an “order,” ruled by priors and subject to the increasingly powerful abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Cluny in France. While centralization was largely against the Rule, it was the only visible solution to the problems facing Benedictinism at the time. The order became very influential, and dominated religious life in the West until the middle of the twelfth century. However, an empty formalism in the increasingly elbaorate liturgy left no time or energy for work, personal prayer, and study.

 

The Cistercians

During the final years of the 11th century, a group of monks seeking a stricter and more primitive form of Benedictinism than any in existence at that time withdrew in a move that led to the formation of the new Cistercian order. Abbot Robert of Molesme and 21 of his fellow monks founded a new monastery at Cîteaux in Burgundy during 1098. The monastery was not successful until a young nobleman, later to become St. Bernard of Clairvaux, joined the order in 1112 with 30 other young noblemen including his brothers. Under the abbacy of Bernard, the Cistercian order experienced a period of great growth and importance, spreading to almost every part of Western Europe. 530 Cistercian abbeys were established before the end of the 12th century. The Cistercians aimed to return to the monastic life outlined in the Rule of St. Benedict, stripping away various practices that had been added during the Carolingian period. While the Cluniac order of Benedictines focused on an elaborate liturgy that left little time for work and personal prayer, the Cistercians returned to Benedict’s balance of prayer and work.

The Cistercian order aimed for an austere and simple daily life with renewed emphasis on manual labor while following the slighter round of prayers in Benedict’s Rule. The monks dressed in rough, undyed woolen habits (which lead them to be called the “white monks”), kept a vegetarian diet, built churches plain in character, and used vestments and ornament made without precious materials. Because they took care to build their monasteries in isolated areas, they played a large role in settling wild lands throughout Europe. They became important agricultural pioneers, especially in English sheep farming. Although physical labor was a major part of a monk’s life, Cistercians welcomed lay brethren to help with the care of the monastery estates. Lay members lived under somewhat less severe rules, with simplified religious duties and no voting rights.

The Cistercians minimized contact with the outside world in their quest for solitude and simplicity. They seldom allowed outside laymen to visit their monasteries, were strict about whom they accepted into their order, and did not own parish churches or administer the sacraments to lay people. Nonetheless, the Cistercian order became very influential. Bernard himself gained a reputation as a critic of contemporary society, and became heavily involved in European politics, from influencing the election of Pope Innocent II, to preaching the Second Crusade.

Following the Rule of St. Benedict, every Cistercian house aimed for a high degree of autonomy under its own abbot, economic management, and recruitment of novices. The order was originally founded as a federation of five monastic houses, each with equal authority.  As the Cistercian order became more widespread, a written constitution called the ‘Charter of Charity’ was put together.  While the constitution methodically structured the central supervision, it allowed for a large degree of local autonomy under the control of each individual abbot.

 

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Based on the account of early monasticism given in Joseph H. Lynch’s The Medieval Church: A brief history, published in 1992 by Longman Publishing, as well as on the entries for “Benedictines” (267-273) and “Benedictine Rule” (261-263) in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. vol. 2. 2002, and The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross, 1978