A. The Foundations

1. The Rule of Benedict.

The Rule of Benedict is something that all the spokespersons for medieval monastic spirituality studied here have in common. None of them followed it literally, but all of them took it very seriously.

Text and commentary: Among many possibilities: T. Kardong, Benedict's Rule (Liturgical Press, 1996); RB80: The Rule of Benedict in Latin and English with Notes (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1981); Esther de Waal, Seeking God (1984; 2nd ed: Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2001). Kardong and RB80 give the text of the rule; the text from RB80 is available in a brief pamphlet (Liturgical Press) and Kardong's text will be available separately soon.

Assignment I: The Rule of St. Benedict is mostly rule, rather than theological or spiritual theory. Yet, allowing for personal individuality, St. Benedict was trying to shape a certain kind of person, a person with certain habits and outlooks. What are those traits? Give reasons for your choices.

2. Gregory the Great (d. 604): Dialogues, Bk. II.

Gregory I was a monk and then pope. There is no reason to think he followed the Rule of St. Benedict, but he seems to have been the author of The Dialogues in four books, the second of which is devoted to the life of St. Benedict. Even if he wasn't the author of that life, the life was an important, if secondary influence on later monastic spirituality, and Gregory's other writings were extremely important in shaping medieval monastic spirituality.

Text and commentary: Gregory the Great, The Life of St. Benedict. Ed. A. de Vogüé. Petersham, MA: St. Bede's, 1993. For further information on the Dialogues, see Joan M. Petersen, The Dialogues of Gregory the Great in their Late Antique Cultural Background (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 1984). About Gregory: R. A. Markus, Gregory the Great and His World (NY: Cambridge UP, 1997), esp. chapters 1-5; Gregory the Great: A Symposium, ed. John C. Cavadini (Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 1995), chapters 4, 8, 9; Jeffrey Richards, Consul of God: The Life and Times of Gregory the Great (Boston: Routledge, 1980), esp. 251-266; Matthew Baasten, Pride according to Gregory the Great: A Study of the Moralia (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1986), esp. pp. 89-118).

Assignment II: What does the story of Benedict given by St. Gregory add to the picture of Benedictine spirituality derived from the Rule?

Assignment III: Three ideas of Gregory's, all of which have shaped Benedictine spirituality throughout the centuries, are (1) compunction, (2) discretion, and (3) the unity or complementarity of action and contemplation. Do you find these ideas in the Rule, The Dialogues and in Benedictine life today? Hints: prayer with tears; the meeting with Scholastica; Benedict's the vision of the universe.

Note: In this third assignment, I was prompted by the desire not to let the massive contribution of Gregory the Great to medieval monastic spirituality go unremarked. Of course, Benedict couldn't derive his ideas from Gregory who lived after him, but I think he does anticipate Gregory somewhat on these three ideas: (1) compunction: it could be either sorrow for sin or sorrow that one seems so far from God and heaven. Sorrow for sin was a strong theme in the early monastic tradition where the idea that the monk is a penitent, one who does lifelong penance for sin, was strong. I think there are echoes of this in the Rule: that a monk's life should always have a Lenten character, prayer with tears (in RB, but also in story of Scholastica's prayer with tears). Although Benedict doesn't call it compunction, in the RB there is also a strong emphasis on longing for and hastening toward God. (2) Discretion/discernment is a very pervasive theme in the earlier monastic tradition. It shows up in the RB quite often, especially regarding the abbot. It means not just moderation, but discerning God's will and self-knowledge (discernment of spirits). (3) Gregory thought, like most people in the MA, that every Christian's life should combine, in varying degrees and rhythms, moral effort, work, deeds of kindness and/or ministry AND prayer both liturgical and personal. I think one sees this same combination clearly in the Rule. In the Dialogues one sees Benedict doing various activities and praying in ways that compliment the RB's teaching.

B. Carolingian and Early Medieval Times

3.Life of Austreberta, Abbess of Pavilly (650-703)

Austreberta lived in the period when the Merovingian dynasty was in decline. St. Columbanus (d. 615) had been very active in fostering Christianity and monasticism in the Merovingian lands. Missionaries radiating out from the monastery he founded at Luxeuil evangelized various areas. Saint Omer (d. 667), who received Austreberta into monastic life, was trained at Luxeuil and was an abbot before becoming bishop of Thérouanne. This was the era of "mixed rules" when monasteries adopted elements from different rules, especially the rules of Benedict and Columbanus. Sometime after 670, St. Philibert founded the double monastery of Jumičges. The women's community there was absorbed by the nearby community at Pavilly that Austreberta established. Pavilly was destroyed by the Vikings. Scholars dispute whether the life of Austreberta was written shortly after her death or later, in the ninth century.

Bibliography: Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ed. and tr. Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg (Durham, NC: Duke University, 1992); Suzanne Fonay Wemple, Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister 500 to 900 (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1981).

Assignment IV: Read the life of St. Austreberta in Sainted Women, pp. 304-325. By this time lives of saints contained many stylized elements: a preface explaining how the book came to be written (by an unwilling and unworthy writer); a biography which included miracles surrounding the birth and death of the saint; if a nun, entry into the convent often over objections of parents and suitors; the saint's virtues; miracles she worked while the saints was alive; miracles attributed to her after her death. How does this particular hagiographical life describe the monastic observance and piety of the times? What virtues are recommended? Who are the nuns? What is not mentioned?

4.Bede (d. 735)

Bede was a brilliant, gentle, holy monk, scholar and teacher, who spent almost his entire life at the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. He was a serious commentator on the Bible, a historian and a writer of saints' lives.

Bibliography: Many of the Jarrow Lectures (1958ff.) are devoted to him, but they are not easy to find. In The Age of Bede, tr. J. F. Webb and. D. H. Farmer (1965; NY: Penguin, 1998) there are translations of his prose life of St. Cuthbert and his "Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow." Cistercian Publications has published his biblical homilies on the Gospels (2 vols.) and his commentaries on Acts and the Catholic Epistles. There is also a translation of his commentaries On Tobit and on the Canticle of Habakkuk, tr. Seán Connolly (Portland, OR: Four Courts, 1997.

Assignment V: Read in one of Bede's works and comment on the theological and spiritual message it conveys and/or discuss in what way it can serve as an exemplar for monastic scholars of our day?

5.Boniface (c. 675-754) and Leoba (d, ca. 782)

St. Boniface was born Wynfrith in Wessex, educated at Exeter, and became a monk. He was well educated; he wrote a Latin grammar as maintained a large correspondence. In 716 he went as a missionary to Frisia. In 719, he was commissioned by Pope Gregory II as a missionary. He worked among the Hessians. Ordained a bishop in Rome in 722, he continued his missionary work in Germany where he founded many monasteries. About 746 he became Archbishop of Mainz. The most trustworthy ancient life of Boniface is that by Willbald. After his death, Boniface was buried at Fulda, a monastery he had some part in founding. Around 836, Rudolf, a monk of Fulda and former pupil of the monk-scholar Rhaban Maur, wrote a life of Leoba, the Abbess of Bishofsheim, who died in 779. Leoba had been a nun at Wimbourne in England. When Boniface wrote asking for missionaries to help him in Germany and to staff the Benedictine monasteries he was building there, he asked her abbess to send Leoba, who was learned and holy.

Bibliography: C. H. Talbot, The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954); Willibald, The Life of Saint Boniface, tr. George Robinson (Cambridge: Harvard, 1916); English Correspondence of St. Boniface. (NY: Cooper Square, 1961); Letters of St. Boniface (Columbia U P, 1940; later reprinted). Norton, 1971); George William Greenaway, Saint Boniface: Three Biographical Studies (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1955); Thomas Allison, English Religious Life in the Eighth Century as Illustrated by Contemporary Letters (1929; Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1970). Medieval Women Monastics: Wisdom's Wellsprings, ed. Miriam Schmitt and Linda Kulzer (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996) has chapters on Leoba and her abbess in England, Tetta, and the notes to these chapters give additional bibliography.

Assignment VI: Read Willibald's Life of Boniface (Talbot; Robinson), or the Life of Leoba (Talbot), or some of Correspondence of Boniface (Talbot, or other editions mentioned in the bibliography). Describe the interplay of monastic and missionary zeal in these Anglo-Saxon missionaries.

6.Benedict of Aniane (d. 821)

Benedict of Aniane is a very important and enigmatic figure in the history of Benedictine monasticism. There is very little about him in English. He was instrumental in helping Charlemagne and Louis the Pious impose and homogenize the practice of the Benedictine Rule in the Carolingian Empire. There is not much available about him in English. In Ardo's biography of this saint there is a certain tension or dichotomy between the monastic rigorist and the imperial abbot. According to García Columbás, La Tradición Benedictina (Zamora: Ediciones Monte Casino, 1991) 3:87-136, Benedict of Aniane met Louis the Pious when the latter was a sub-king. They became fast friends. When Louis succeeded Charlemagne, he called Benedict of Aniane to be his advisor, especially in monastic matters. In fact, he built him a big monastery near Aachen, so he would be handy when needed. Columbás cites various estimates of Benedict of Aniane by modern Benedictine scholars. Jacques Dubois: "Benedict of Aniane's work has been judged harshly by modern historians. Authoritarian, centralizing and micro-managing, he deformed the monastic life which Benedict had sought, reducing the activities of the monks and their relations with the Christian people, enlarging liturgical service and multiplying formalistic observances." For his part, Jean Leclercq thinks Benedict of Aniane helped promote theological study and thinking among Benedictines, while remaining faithful to the primitive ideal of the Rule. Both Cardinal Gasquet and Abbot Cuthbert Butler thought Benedict of Aniane was too much enamored of uniformity. Berličre accused Benedict of Aniane of having made the divine office the sole preoccupation of the monk and so destroying the balance of the Benedictine life. Philibert Schmitz criticized him for legislating the additional office requirements, but recognized that Benedict of Aniane was only putting into legislation what was already common practice. He also criticized Benedict of Aniane for urging monasteries to close all extern schools. Ardo's Life is our best source, even though he gilds his story with much from the Bible and the Dialogues and is a great admirer of Benedict. Benedict was born about 750, son of a Visigoth count. In 774 AD, when he was in danger of choking to death, he vowed to become a monk. He stayed in a monastery till 780, but then left because it wasn't like he thought it should be. He went to live on a family property, where he imposed fierce asceticism on his associates, who then left. He moderated his asceticism somewhat and attracted some more recruits. Then occurred his "great conversion." Hitherto, he had adopted the severe practices of the monastic fathers. Henceforth, he would observe the golden mean. Abandoning poor little buildings, he undertook to construct a basilica. Now, too, liturgy would be opulent. Benedict undertook by this to blend the observance of the Rule with the splendor of the great Carolingian monasteries. The omnipotence of the Triune God was the prime element in the religious expression of the Carolingians. Everything was to be penetrated by the majesty of God and his heavenly court. With the support of the Carolingian crown, Benedict achieved immunity and free election for monasteries. Louis helped him to try to reform all the Carolingian monasteries. In his reform, a number of prayers and observances were added to the daily round of Rule of Benedict, but this seems to have been an actual reduction from what had become customary by Benedict of Aniane's day. Louis called three synods of abbots that Benedict dominated both by his learning and by his authority. The synods ruled that all monasteries must follow a similar observance. In this, the ultimate authority was the emperor's. The goal was as exact as possible observance of the Rule of Benedict. In effect, what were already widespread customs were imposed as law. The Rule of Benedict had already become widely diffused. Benedict of Aniane's efforts were the culmination of a lengthy historical development. In the Carolingian legislation, many of the details (about eating, banning outside students, etc.) aimed to separate monks from the rest of humanity. Also, the legislation insisted that the abbot live in the monastery and devote himself to its care. By Benedict of Aniane's time, monks were considered intercessors for the rest of the Christian people. That was their primary job. They did it in nice surroundings, reflecting the heavenly court. These beliefs would continue to dominate thinking about monks for a long time to come, not necessarily to the good (Berličre called them a disaster). Benedict of Aniane was not a founder, but a continuator. His great gift to monasticism was the myth of the Rule of Benedict as foundational document of Western monachism, which makes him in some way the founder of "the Benedictines." The immediate results of Benedict of Aniane's efforts were ephemeral, but the long-range consequences remained operative until the French Revolution and beyond. Benedict of Aniane died in 821, before Louis the Pious' reform activities were complete. Soon the new barbarian (Viking, Hun, Muslim) invasions would bring destruction to many monasteries.

Assignment VII: Read Ardo, The Emperor's Monk. Contemporary Life of Benedict of Aniane. Ilfracombe, Devon: Stockell, 1979. Summarize and evaluate Benedict of Aniane's understanding of the monastic life.

Assignment VIII: A Trappist friend of mine once suggested that since the Early Middle Ages Benedictines (not Cistercians!) have been trying to live three incompatible forms of life, stemming from these three men: scholarly (Bede), missionary (Boniface) and ornately liturgical (Benedict of Aniane). The Trappist suggested that Benedict's Rule says nothing about any of these, and certainly does not inculcate all three together. What do you think of these opinions in the light of your reading of the Rule, these three exemplary monks, and your own experience of Benedictine life.

C. Cluny

7.Lives of St. Odo and Gerald of Aurillac.

Oddly enough, there is not very much Cluniac writing available in English. Cluny had a specific organizational structure, but its spirituality does not seem different from that of other Benedictine reform movements of the 10th and 11th century. One factor in Cluny's greatness was the quality and longevity of its abbots. The assignment gives the choice of lives by and about St. Odo (c. 879-942). He was an educated cleric of a well-connected family who joined the monastery of Baume in 909 under Abbot Berno. In the next year, when Cluny was founded, he was placed in charge of the school at Baume. He succeeded Berno as Abbot of Cluny in 927.

Bibliography: St. Odo of Cluny: Being the Life of St. Odo of Cluny by John of Salerno, and the Life of St. Gerald of Aurillac by St. Odo (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1958); Noreen Hunt, Cluny under St. Hugh (Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 1968).

Assignment IX. : Read the life of St. Odo or his life of St. Gerald of Aurillac. What emphases do you notice in the spirituality presented in these lives?

D. Twelfth-Century Black Monks

8.St. Anselm of Aosta, Bec and Canterbury (c. 1033-1109)

St. Anselm was one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all times, a dedicated monk and saint, whom circumstances thrust into the world of English politics in which his uncompromising dedication to principle ("rectitude" = rightness) made him a poor fit. St. Anselm also helped pioneer a more introspective and emotional style spirituality, which St. Bernard and St. Francis would foster and bequeath to the rest of the Middle Ages (and in some ways even to the twenty-first century).

Bibliography: Prayers and Meditations, tr. Benedicta Ward (Baltimore: Penguin, 1973). The bibliography on Anselm is vast. There is a nice selection of works in Brian Davies and Gillian R. Evans, eds., Anselm of Canterbury, The Major Works (New York: Penguin, 1999). Note especially the brief work, G. R. Evans, Anselm (London, 1989) and the much more substantial, R. W. Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape (Cambridge, 1991). Translations of his letters have been published by Cistercian Publications

Assignment X: Read some of the prayers and the "Meditation on Human Redemption" (Ward, Prayers, pp. 230-237), which gives some sense of the ideas in his hugely influential theological study, Why God Became Man. Can you see connections between his theory of the redemption and the spirituality of his prayers?

9.Peter de Celle (c. 1182)

Peter was of the lesser nobility. He may have been educated in Paris. He entered the Benedictine monastery at Montier-la-Celle, became abbot there and then at St. Remy in Reims and for the last year of his life was John of Salisbury's successor as bishop of Chartres. He wrote treatises, sermons and many letters. Although there were quarrels and controversies among different forms of monasticism in the twelfth century, Pierre de Celle, had a genuine respect for the various forms of religious life; e.g., Benedictine, Cistercian, Canonial, and Carthusian.

Text: The School of the Cloister in Peter of Celle, Selected Works, tr. Hugh Feiss (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1987). His letters will soon appear in the Oxford Medieval Texts series, Letter of Peter of Celle, ed. Julian Hazeldine (NY: Oxford UP, 2001).

Assignment XI. Read The School of the Cloister. Peter of Celle wrote this book for a regular canon, Richard, the brother of John of Salisbury, but he thought that the spirituality in it was applicable to anyone who lived in a cloister. Was he correct in this regarding the "claustrals" of the twelfth-century? What in it is applicable today and what is not?

10.Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Hildegard of Bingen needs no introduction. She has received an enormous amount of scholarly and popular attention in the last 25 years, especially on the anniversaries of her death and birth.

Bibliography: A good introduction to her life is Sabina Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life (NY: Routledge, 1989). Anthologies of her works: Secrets of God: Writings of Hildegard of Bingen, ed. and tr. Sabina Flanagan (Boston: Shamabala, 1996); Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings, tr. Mark Atherton (NY: Penguin, 2001). These works contain further bibliography and discographies. All her musical work has been recorded by Sequentia; there are also many other fine recordings (e.g., by The Anonymous Four and Ellen Oak).

Assignment XII: Read Scivias, Bk. 2, Vision 6. Tr. Columba Hart. (New York: Paulist, 1990), pp. 235-289. The people of the twelfth century were only beginning to differentiate theology and spirituality. This section of the Scivias is at once mystic vision, theology, spirituality, and catechism on the Eucharist. Who do you think she was writing for and why? What is of particular value in Hildegard's theology of the Eucharist?

11.Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1165)

Elisabeth was born in 1127 and became a Benedictine nun at the age of 12. Her family was prominent and evidently devout. When Elisabeth had her first visionary experience in 1152, she had already been a nun for 11 years. Her experiences began as she was coping with a severe bout of depression. The prayers of her community and her visions, which brought her contact with the Virgin Mary and the saints, brought her healing. Her visionary experiences are usually tied to the liturgy. In her trance-like visions she sometimes received answers to theological questions Schönau had been established as a Benedictine monastery for men in 1114. It was dependent upon the abbey of Schaffhausen until 1125/6 when it became independent and a women's cloister was added. This combination of men's and women's communities was typical of the monastic movement connected with Hirsau. Elisabeth's brother Ekbert was a deacon working in Bonn. He became a priest and monk at Schönau in 1155, and later became abbot. Elisabeth hesitated to urge him to become a monk, because she felt he had been delicately brought up and wouldn't be able to endure the deprivations of monastic life. By 1156 Elisabeth was mistress of the nun's community. At the bidding of the abbot, Ekbert became Elisabeth's secretary and editor. Elisabeth left behind a considerable body of writings: three books of visions, a short text about the Assumption of Mary, visions about the martyrdom of St. Ursula and her companions, The Book of the Ways of God, and some letters. As time went on, Elisabeth uttered prophecies, and in this, as well as in her denunciations of abuses in the church and of the Cathar heretics, she resembles Hildegard of Bingen with whom she corresponded and visited. The title of her Book of the Ways of God may be derived from the title of Hildegard's first great theological work, the Scivias (a shortened form of Know the Ways of the Lord).

Bibliography: Anne Clarke, Elisabeth of Schönau: A Twelfth-Century Visionary (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1992); Elisabeth of Schönau, The Complete Works, tr. Anne Clarke (New York: Paulist, 2000); Anne Clark, "Holy Woman or Unworthy Vessel? The Representations of Elisabeth of Schönau," in Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters, ed. Catherine M. Mooney (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1999) 35-51.

Assignment XIII: Read: "The Book of the Ways of God," in Complete Works 161-207. Answer some of the following questions in an essay: Which of the paths toward God does Elisabeth describe best; what one(s) is she less in sympathy with; what paths does she leave out? Which of the paths she describes have you been called to travel and did her discussion seem helpful in interpreting your experience?

E. Twelfth-Century Cistercians

As we have seen that until about 800 AD the Rule of Benedict was one of many rules that governed monastic life in the West. It vied and sometimes mixed with the Rules of Caesarius, Columbanus and others. Around 800 AD, with the support of the Carolingian monarchs, the Rule of Benedict became almost the only rule in use in Western Europe. The period 850-1000 AD was a very difficult era as various invasions overran Europe. However, early in the 10th century Cluny and other centers of monastic reform took root. Most of these groups, following the lead, it seems, of Benedict of Aniane, emphasized elaborate liturgical ceremonial. By the twelfth century most monks were priests, but a new class of non-ordained monk appeared, the lay brother and lay sister. The twelfth century was the high point of monastic recruitment and perhaps of monastic learning as well. As alternatives to the traditional Benedictine monasteries and the Cluniacs, other monastic forms of life appeared: the Cistercians at places like Citeaux, Clairvaux, Morimond, Fountains, the Canons Regular (whose observance and spirituality seems to have been or quickly became almost identical with that of the Benedictines) of Prémontré, Arrouaise and St. Victor, and smaller orders like the Carthusians. All these groups flourished in the twelfth century; all began to experience retrenchment and difficulties in the 13th century, which saw the rise of new forms of religious life, especially the friars of Dominic and Francis. The Cistercians, whose theological works we will now study, wanted a Benedictine life that gave scope for manual labor and was free of worldly entanglements. The order produced an impressive number of great writers during its first century. Their historical works and hagiography often idealize the beginnings and life of the Cistercians, but such idealizing was typical of much medieval religious writing. One should not assume that twelfth century monks lived perfectly the beautiful ideals they enunciated, nor exactly according to the laws and constitutions which have survived, but one can still be inspired by their ideals.

Bibliography: Cistercian Publishers (Kalamazoo, MI) are publishing English translations of "Cistercian Fathers," those first generations of Cistercian monks in the twelfth century who produced a remarkable output of religious writing. There is a good anthology of their works in The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century, tr. and ed., Pauline Matarasso (NY: Penguin, 1993).

12.Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

Bernard was a man of great energy and a brilliant and prolific writer who had enormous influence during his lifetime and afterwards. There is no standard life of Bernard, but the bibliography of modern works about him runs to the thousands. One of his greatest works consists of 86 sermons on the Song of Songs. His works have almost all been published in English by Cistercian Publications. Two recent books about him are by G. R. Evans, Bernard of Clairvaux (New York: Oxford, 2000) and The Mind of Bernard of Clairvaux (New York: Oxford, 1983).

Assignment XIV Read: On the Song of Songs, Sermons 81-86. In On the Song of Songs, v. 4, tr. Walsh and Edmonds (Spencer: Cistercian Publications, 1971-1980) pp. 157-215—OR—the three sermons On the Song of Songs given in Matarasso, pp. 65-83. (Several earlier translations exist available also). Bernard here introduces his readers to intense interior religious experience. What was that experience like? What indications are there that the mystical experience that Bernard describes grew out of day-to-day monastic living?

Assignment XV. Vita Prima by William of St. Thierry and others (Matarasso, 19-41) William of St. Thierry was a Benedictine abbot who greatly admired St. Bernard, became a Cistercian, and had considerable influence on St. Bernard. His Vita Prima idealizes many things, including St. Bernard. The emphases given his portrait tell us much about the ideals of the early Cistercians. What sort of person was a Cistercian supposed to be? Why were such idealized lives written? Do you think it would have been better to give a more balanced picture of people and institutions?

Assignment XVI. From An Apologia for Abbot William (Matarasso, 42-58; full text in Bernard of Clairvaux, Treatises I [Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1970] 33-69). This satirical and ironic work is clearly not meant to be fair to Cluny. What are the main criticisms of Cluny? Bernard says, in effect, that the art of Cistercian monasteries should be the minimum allowed by the church. Why his ban on figural images?

Assignment XVII. From On Consideration (Matarasso, 84-92; full text published by Cistercian Publications) A Cistercian monk became Pope Eugene III. Bernard wrote this work to offer him advice on how to manage the multiple responsibilities of his new job and not become too busy. What are Bernard's suggestions about avoiding overwork? Would they apply to Benedictine superiors today, to lay people in management positions, to almost anybody?

` 13.Aelred of Rievaulx (1109-1167)

Aelred was the son of a Saxon priest and for part of his youth lived at the court of King David of Scotland. He entered Rievaulx (in Yorkshire) about 1133, became abbot of Revesby in 1143 and of Rievaulx in 1147.

Bibliography: Brian Patrick McGuire, Brother and Lover: Aelred of Rievaulx (NY: Crossroad, 1994); Aelred Squire, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study (1969; Cistercian Publication, 1981); Amadee Hallier, The Monastic Theology of Aelred of Rievaulx (Shannon, Ireland: Cistercian Publications, 1969); Brian Patrick McGuire, Friendship and Community: The Monastic Experience (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1988). Cistercian Publications has issued translations of Aelred's Dialogue on the Soul, Liturgical Sermons, Mirror of Charity, Treaties on Jesus at the Age of Twelve, Rule for a Recluse, and Pastoral Prayer, as well as Walter Daniel's Life of Aelred. He also wrote a life of Edward the Confessor.

Assignment XVIII: Read Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, tr. M. E. Laker (Cistercian Publications, 1974). Aelred's endorsement of spiritual friendship is fairly unusual in Christian spirituality. In fact, even after his day, monastic spirituality took a rather dim view of "particular" friendships, which were seen to be divisive and perhaps seductive as well. Aelred, on the other hand, sees great value in friendship. What is this value? In any case, if "a friend is one in a thousand," it does not seem that the odds are very good that monastics will to find a close friend in their communities. Is that true? Good? Remediable?

Assignment XIX. Here are two appreciations of Aelred by two of his Cistercian contemporaries: Life of Aelred by Walter Daniel (Matarasso, 152-168); Gilbert of Hoyland, Obituary for Aelred (221-22). Walter Daniel was a monk at Rievaulx for while Aelred was abbot there. Gilbert (d. 1172) was asked by the Cistercian general chapter to continue Bernard's unfinished sermon commentary on the Song of Songs and this tribute appears in one of the resulting sermons. What sort of man was Aelred? What differentiated him from other abbots whose writings or lives you have read?

14.William of St. Thierry (c. 1080-1148)

William of St. Thierry was born at Ličge of a noble family and educated there and at Reims. He was a Benedictine at two separate abbeys in the region of Reims. He greatly admired St. Bernard, influenced him, wrote his life and continued his sermons on the Song of Song. In 1135 he joined some Cistercians from Igny to found Signy.

Bibliography: David N. Bell, The Image and Likeness: The Augustinian Spirituality of William of St. Thierry (Kalamazoo: Cistercians Publications, 1984). William wrote many works, most of which have been published in English by Cistercian Publications.

Assignment XX. Read the three Meditations in Matarasso, 110-124. William of St. Thierry was a very intelligent and theologically conservative man. Like many spiritual writers of his time, shows a deep interest in the way the spiritual life develops in the various powers of the soul. What does he say about that?

15.Guerric of Igny and Isaac of Stella (c. 1100- c. 1178).

Isaac of Stella was of English origin and in 1147 was appointed abbot of he monastery of Stella (near Poitiers). Perhaps because of a falling out with the Cistercian authorities because of his support of Thomas Becket, Isaac left Stella in 1167 to found a near monastery near La Rochelle. He was influenced by Christian Platonism.

Igny was founded in 1127, in the archdiocese of Reims, as the fourth daughter house of Clairvaux. Guerric was abbot from 1138-1156.

Bibliography: The Christmas Sermons of Bl. Guerric of Igny (Gethsemani, KY: Abbey of Gethsemani, 1959). Isaac of Stella, Sermons on the Christian Year (Cistercian Publications).

Assignment XXI: Guerric of Igny, Three Sermons (Matarasso, 129-141); Isaac of Stella, Two Sermons (Matarasso, 203-212). Reflect on what these sermons say about prayer. How true does it ring to (y)our contemporary experience?

16. John of Ford (c. 1150-1214).

John of Ford wrote the Life of Wulfric and continued the commentary on the Song of Songs begun by St. Bernard and continued by Gilbert of Hoyland (also published by Cistercian Publications); in addition a single sermon of his survives. Ford was founded from Waverly in 1136. John was a contemporary of Abbot Baldwin of Ford, also a writer (two volumes of treatises, Cistercian Publications); John himself became abbot in 1191.

Bibliography: Commentary on the Songs of Songs, tr. Sr.Wendy Mary Beckett, 7 vols. Cistercian Publications, 1977-1984; A Gathering of Friends: The Learning and Spirituality of John of Forde, ed. Hilary Costello and Christopher Holdworth (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1996).

Assignment XXII: Except from The Life of Wulfric of Haselbury (Matarasso, 235-274). In writing about the anchorite Wulfric, John of Ford reveals much about his (Cistercian) understanding of spirituality. Discuss that spirituality.

F. Later Middle Ages

17.Beatrice of Nazareth (1200-1268)

Beatrice was born in Tienen, near Leuven in modern day Belgium, the youngest of six children of well-to-do parents. Her mother home schooled her. Beatrice was seven when her mother died, and she was then sent to live with a group of beguines; when she was about ten she was entrusted to the Cistercian monastery of Bloemendaal. She decided to become a nun and was professed in 1216. She was sent to another monastery to learn to copy manuscripts; there she became friends with Ida of Nivelles, who acted as her spiritual guide. She had her first mystical experience in 1217. She was sent to the foundation at Maagdendaal, and then, in 1236, to its new foundation of Nazareth. There she was prioress from 1237 until her death.

A chaplain of the convent wrote her life shortly after her death. He used a diary she kept for some years up to 1237, some of her later notes, and information from her fellow sisters one of whom was her blood sister. How much he modified Beatrice's autobiographical account is a matter of controversy. Here we will concentrate on a vernacular work of hers, "The Seven Manners of Loving God," which the author of her life modified considerably in incorporating it into his life.

Bibliography: The Life of Beatrice of Nazareth, tr. Roger DeGanck, to which DeGanck adds two volumes dedicated to Beatrice of Nazareth in her Context (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1991); Amy Hollywood, "Inside Out: Beatrice of Nazareth and Her Hagiographer," in Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and their Interpreters, ed. Catherine Mooney (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1999) 78-98.

Assignment XXIII: Read in English translations in De Ganck, Life, pp. 289-331, the two versions of her "Seven Manners of Love." Compare the spirituality in Beatrice's own version on the right side with the text as modified by her biographer (on the left hand side). What differences do you detect?

18. Gertrude of Helfta (d. 1302)

Gertrude the Great went to live at the monastery of Helfta at the age of four, in 1261, when Gertrude of Hackeborn was abbess. Gertrude the Great may have been an orphan; we know nothing about her family. She received an excellent education at the convent and developed a great love of reading. Two books come to us from her hand: The Spiritual Exercises and parts of the Herald of Divine Love. She was a close friend and associate of Mechthild of Hackeborn who was chantress at the monastery. The two women had a deep love of the liturgy.

Bibliography: Spiritual Exercises. Tr. Lewis & Lewis (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1989); Gertrude of Helfta, The Herald of Divine Love [parts of books I-III], tr. Margaret Winkworth (New York: Paulist, 1993); Gertrude the Great of Helfta, The Herald of God's Loving-Kindness, tr. Alexandra Barrat, vol. 1 (Books I-II), vol. 2 (Book III) (Cistercian Publications, 1991, 1999).

Assignment XXIV: Read: Spiritual Exercises, tr. Lewis & Lewis (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1989). There are several earlier translations. With Gertrude we begin to see the emergence of specific spiritual exercises from the less differentiated spirituality of the earlier Middle Ages? What advantages or disadvantages do you see in specific spiritual exercises (e.g. structured meditation, visualization, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, days of recollection)?

19. Monk of Farne, Mediations

The monk in question was probably Richard Whiterig, who joined the monastery at Durham around 1350 and died in 1371 after having been for some years a solitary at the monastery's hermitage on Farne Island. He had studied theology at Oxford and served as novice master. He lived in the century of the Black Death, the Avignon Papacy, Wyclif and a great flowering of mysticism in England and the Rhineland. The author sometimes refers to topics elaborated or disputed by medieval theologians. However, he is not writing a technical theological work, but a meditation in the manner of the prayers of St. Anselm. His "Meditation to Christ Crucified," by far his longest and most important, is divided into three parts.

Bibliography: Monk of Farne, Meditations of a Fifteenth-Century Monk. Baltimore: Helicon, 1961; repr. as Christ Crucified: Meditations of a Benedictine Monk (Christian Classics, 1994).

Assignment XXV. Read: "The Meditation to Christ Crucified" in the The Monk of Farne, Meditations. Reflect on the Monk of Farne's theology or image of Christ (compared, say, to the Christology of the Rule of Benedict or of St. Anselm).

Assignment XXVI. The author of this work became a hermit, as the Rule provides. There is a new interest in hermit-living today (witness Merton and various hermits and hermitages who have begun the eremitical life since Vatican II). Aelred of Rievaulx wrote guidelines for a sister who was a kind of hermit, and many of the founders of religious communities and orders in the Middle Ages began as hermits and then formed communities when groups of people gathered around them. Consider the place of solitude in Christian living today, and reflect on the hermit's calling and its revival today.

20. Louis de Blois (Blosius) (d. 1566)

Louis de Blois entered the monastery of Liessies in Hainaut at the age of fourteen in 1520. His abbot sent him to study at Ghent and Louvain. In 1530 Louis had to end his studies to become abbot. He was a prolific spiritual writer.

Bibliography: There is not much in English about Blosius is English, but his works were translated and published in many small volumes by B. Wilberforce and D. R. Huddleston (London: Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1925-26). There is a book on him by George de Blois, A Benedictine of the Sixteenth Century (London: Burns and Oates, 1878).

Assignment XXVII. Read: A Mirror for Monks (London: Burns & Oates, 1926).Blosius takes us to the very end of the Middle Ages. He was a determined monastic reformer, who lived during the Reformation and was heir to a wave of late-medieval monastic reform, which had been especially strong in Italy and Germany. He drew in part on the Devotio Moderna (e.g. Imitation of Christ). What new elements of spirituality do you detect in his works?

Surveys

Downey, Michael, ed. The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993. Elder, E. Rozanne, ed. Spirituality of Western Christendom. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1976. Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold, The Study of Spirituality (New York: Oxford, 1986). Leclercq, Jean. Love of the Learning and the Desire for God. New York: Fordham U P, 1961; NAL 1962. Leclercq, Jean and F. Vandenbroeck, Spirituality of the Middle Ages. London: Burns and Oates, 1968. There is an American edition also. McGinn, Bernard. The Presence of God. A History of Western Christian Mysticism. Vol. 2: The Growth of Mysticism: Gregory the Great through the 12th Century. New York: Crossroads, 1994; vol. 3: Flowering of Mysticism: 1200-1350. (Crossroads, 1998) McGinn, B., et. al. eds. Christian Spirituality. Vol. 1: Origins to the Twelfth Century. Vol. 2: High Middle Ages and Renaissance. New York: Crossroads, 1985--. Vauchez, A. Spirituality of the Medieval West: The Eighth to the Twelfth Century. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1993.

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