§ 64. THE CISTERCIANS. 339
to 738. 1 The order, though never the recipient of such priv ileges as were dispensed to Cluny, was highly honored by some of the popes. Innocent III. showed them special favor, and promised them the precedence in audiences at Rome.2
The carta charitatis, the Rule of Love, the code of the Cistercians, dates from Harding's administration and was confirmed by Calixtus II. — 1119. It commanded the strict observance of the Benedictine Rule, but introduced a new method of organization for the whole body. In contrast to the relaxed habits of the Cluniacs, the mode of life was made austerely simple. The rule of silence was emphasized and flesh forbidden, except in the case of severe illness. The conven tual menu was confined to two dishes. All unnecessary adorn ment of the churches was avoided, so that nothing should re main in the house of God which savored of pride or superfluity. The crosses were of wood till the statutes of 1157 allowed them to be of gold. Emphasis was placed upon manual labor as an essential part of monastic life. A novice at Clairvaux writes enthusiastically of the employment of the monks, whom he found with hoes in the gardens, forks and rakes in the meadows, sickles in the fields, and axes in the forest.3 |In some parts they became large landowners and crowded out the owners of small plats.4 At a later period they gave themselves to copying manuscripts.5 Their schools in Paris, Montpellier (1252), Toulouse (1281), Oxford (1282), Metz, and other places were noted, but with the ex ception of Bernard they developed no distinguished School men or writers as did the mendicant orders.6 They were not
1 Janauschek has shown that 1800, the number formerly given, is an exaggeration. 2 Hurter, IV. 184 sqq.
3 Peter de Roya, Ep. St. Bernard, 492 ; Migne, 182, 711.
* Hauck, IV. 336.
6 One of the regulations of the chapter of 1134 enjoined silence in the scriptorium. In omnibus scriptoriis ubicunque ex consuetudine monachi scribunt silentium teneatur sicut in claustro. Maitland, p. 450.
6 The Cistercians are said to have produced the first Swedish translation of the Bible. Hurter, IV. 180.
340 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
given to the practice of preaching or other spiritual service among the people.1 The general chapter, 1191, forbade preaching in the parish churches and also the administration of baptism. The order became zealous servants of the pope and foes of heresy. The abbot Arnold was a fierce leader of the Crusades against the Albigenses.
Following the practice introduced at the convent of Hirschau, the Cistercians constituted an adjunct body of laymen, or conversi.2 They were denied the tonsure and were de barred from ever becoming monks. The Cistercian dress was at first brown and then white, whence the name Gray Monks, grisei. The brethren slept on straw in cowl and their usual day dress.
The administration of the Cistercians was an oligarchy as compared with that of the Cluniacs. The abbot of Cluny was supreme in his order, and the subordinate houses received their priors by his appointment. Among the Cistercians each convent chose its own head. At the same time the com munity of all the houses was insured by the observance of the Rule of 1119, and by yearly chapters, which were the ultimate arbiters of questions in dispute. The five earliest houses exercised the right of annual visitation, which was performed by their abbots over five respective groups. A General Council of twenty-five consisted of these five abbots and of four others from each of the five groups. The General Chapters were held yearly and were attended by all the abbots within a certain district. Those at remote distances attended less frequently: the abbots from Spain, every two years; from Sweden and Norway, every three
1 St. Bernard declared that the office of the monk is not to preach, but to be an ascetic, and that the town should be to him as a prison, and solitude as paradise, quod monachus nan Juibct docentis sed plangentis officium, quippe cut oppidum career e^sr dc~bct et solitudo paradisus. A monk who goes out into the world, he said, turns things round and makes his solitude a prison and the town paradise. Ep., 365 ; Migne, 182, 570.
2 Called at Hirschau also barbati, the bearded.