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 CISTERCIANS

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CISTERCIANS

was Abbot of Molesme, a monastery dependent on Cluny. Appalled by the laxity into which the Order of Cluny had fallen, he endeavoured to effect reforms in the monasteries of Saint-1'ierre-dc-la-Oelle, Saint- Michel ot Tonnerre, and finally in that of Molesme. 1 1 i.— attempts at reform in these monasteries meeting with very little success, he, with six of his religious, among whom were Alberic and Stephen, had recourse to Hugh, Legate of the Holy See, and Archbishop of Lyons. Authorized by Archbishop Hugh to institute a reform, Robert and liis companions returned to Molesme and there chose from among the religious thost whom they considered most fitted to participate in their undertaking. To the number of twenty-one the company retired to the solitude of Citeaux (in the Diocese of Chalons), which Raynald, Viscount of Beaune, had ceded to them. (See Citeaux, Abbey of.) On the feast of St. Benedict (2] March), 1098, which fell that year on Palm Sunday, they commenced to build the " Xew Monaster] ".as it is called in the "Exordium sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis". This, therefore, was the birthday of the tinier of Citeaux. By order of the \|m tohc legate, Robert received the pastoral staff From the bishop of the diocese, Gauthier, and was charged with t he government of his brethren, who im- mediately made tneir vow of stability. Thus was the ''Xew Monastery" canonically erected into an abbey.

At this news, the monks who had remained at Molesme sent a deputation to Pope Urban II, asking that Robert might be sent back to his first monastery. The pope yielded to their petition, ami Robert returned to Molesme, after having governed Citeaux for one year. There the prior. Alberic. was elected to replace him. and. in his turn, sent the two monks, John and Ilbode, as delegates to Pascal II (who had just suc- ceeded Urban II) to beg him to take the church of ( in nix under the protection of the Apostolic See. By Apostolic Letters, dated at Trnja in Campania, 18 April. 1100, Pascal 11 declared that betook under his immediate protection the abbey and the religious, of Citeaux. saving their allegiance to the Church of Cha- lons. Dating from this day, Alberic and his religious established at Citeaux the exact observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, substituted the white habit for the black which the Benedictines wore, and, the better to observe the rule in regard to the Divine Office day and night, associated with themselves lay brothers, to be chiefly occupied with the manual labours and material affairs of the order. These lay brothers, or COnverri, though they were not monks, were to lie treated during life ami after death just like the monks themselves. Si. Alberic died in 1109.

His successor was Stephen Harding, an Englishman by birth, well versed in sacred and profane science, who had been one of the first promoters of the project to leave Molesme. St. Robert, liis two immediate suc- ceSBOIS, and their companions had but one object in view: a reaction against the laxity of Cluny and of other monasteries to resume manual labour, to adopt a more severe regimen, and to restore in monastic churches ami church ceremonies the gravity and sim- plicity proper to the monastic profession. They never thought of founding a nevi o from Citeaux

were to go forth, in course of time, colonies of monks who should found other monasteries destined to be- ithei Citeaux, and thus create an order distinct from that of Cluny.

Si. Bernard's entrance into the Order of Citeaux (lll.'i was the signal of this extraordinary develop- ment. Thirty young noblemen of Burgundy followed him, among them four of his brothers. ( Ithers came after them, and in such numbers that in the following year (111:; Ctteaux was able to send forth its first colony and found its first filiation. La 1'erte. in the Diocese of Chalons. In 1114 another colony was es- tablished at Pontigny, in the Diocese of Auxerre. In 1115 the young Bernard founded Clairvaux in the Dio-

cese of Langres. In the same year Morimond was founded in the same Diocese of Langres. These were the first four offshoots of Citeaux; but of these monas- teries Clairvaux attained the highest development, be- coming mother of sixty-eight monasteries even in the lifetime of St. Bernard. (See Clairvaiw.)

After this St. Stephen Harding was to complete the legislation for the new institute. Cluny had intro- duced into the monastic order the eon federation of the members among themselves. St. Stephen added thereto the institution of general chapters and regular visits. Thus mutual supervision, rendering account of the administration, rigid examination of discipline, im- mediate correction of abuses, were so many sure means of maintaining the observance in all its purity. The collection of statutes which St. Stephen drafted, and in which are con- tained wise provi- sions for the govern- ment of the order, was called the ( 'bar- ter of Charity ( I. a Charte de Chant'). It and the "US", the book of usages and customs, to gether with some of the definitions of t he first general chap- ters, received the approbation of Pope Callistus II. At the death of St. Stephen (1134), the order, after thirty-six years of existence, counted 70 monasteries, of which 55 were in France.

II. The Golden Age (1134-1342).— The diffusion of the new order was chiefly effected by means of foundations. Nevertheless several congregations and monasteries, which had existed before the Order of Citeaux, became affiliated to it. among them the Congregations of Savigny and Obazine, which were incorporated in t he orderin 1147. St. Bernard and other Cistercians took a very active part, too, in the establish- ment of the great military orders, and supplied them with their constitutions and their laws. Among these various orders of chivalry may lie mentioned the Tem- plars, the Knights of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcan- tara, of A viz, of St. Maurice, of theW ingofSt. Michael, of Montesa, etc. In 1 152 the ( Irder ol i iiteaux already cotmted 350 abl>eys, 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; in the next place comes the per- fect unity which existed between the monasteries and the members of every house, a unity wonderfully main- tained by the punctual assembling of general chapters, and the faithful performance of the regular visits. The general chapter was an assembly of all the abbots of the order, even those who resided farthest from Citeaux. This assembly, during the Golden Age. took place an- nually, according to the prescriptions of the Charter of Chanty. "This Cistercian Areopagus", gays I he author of the "Origin's Cistercienses", "with equal severity and justice kept watch over the observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, the Charter of Charity, and the definitions of the preceding Chapters. " The collection