§ 64. THE CISTERCIANS. 341
years; from Scotland, Ireland, Hungary, and Greece, every four years ; and from the Orient, every seven years. It became a proverb that uThe gray monks were always on their feet."
The Cistercians spread over all Western Europe. The Spanish orders of Alcantara and Calatrava adopted their rule. The first Cistercian house in Italy was founded 1120 at Tiglieto, Liguria, and in Germany at Alte,nkamp about 1123.1 In England the order got a foothold in 1128, when William Gilford, bishop of Winchester, founded the house of Waverley in Surrey.2 Among the prominent English houses were, Netley near Southampton, founded by Henry III., Rivaulx, and Fountains,3 the greatest abbey in Northern England. In 1152 there were fifty Cistercian houses in England.4 Melrose Abbey, Scotland, also belonged to this order.
Of all the Cistercian convents, Port Royal has the most romantic history. Founded in 1204 by Mathilda de Garlande in commemoration of the safe return of her husband from the Fourth Crusade, it became in the seventeenth cen tury a famous centre of piety and scholarship. Its association with the tenets of the Jansenists, and the attacks of Pascal upon the Jesuits, brought on its tragic downfall. The famous hospice, among the snows of St. Gotthard, is under the care of St. Bernard monks.
In the thirteenth century the power of the Cistercians yielded to the energy of the orders of St. Francis and St.
1 See Hauck, IV. 325 sqq. , for the names of the German houses.
2 Shortly after Harding's death, William of Malmesbury, IV. I, Rolls ed., II. 385, describes the order "as a model for all monks, a mirror to the studi ous, and a goad to the slothful." Gasquet, p. 221, says that three-fourths of the hundred Cistercian houses suppressed by Henry VIII. were founded in the 12th century.
3 The ruins of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire is described by Motley (correspondence, I. 359) as u most picturesque, and the most exquisite, and by far the most impressive ruins I have ever seen, and much more beautiful than Melrose Abbey." For the ground plan, see Dr. Venables, art. Abbey, in "Enc. Brit.," I. 19, and photographs of the walls (as they are). Hodges.
4 Stephens, Hist, of Enyl. Church, p. 201.
342 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Dominic. It was not a rare thing for them to pass over to the newer monastic organizations.1 In 1335 Benedict XIII. enacted regulations in the interest of a severe discipline, and in 1444 Eugenius IV. felt called upon to summon the General Chapter to institute a rigid reform. With the Reformation many of the houses were lost to the order in England and Germany. The Trappists started a new movement towards severity within the order. The French Revolution suppressed the venerable organization in 1790. The buildings at Citeaux, presided over by a succession of sixty-two abbots, are now used as a reformatory institution.
§ 65. St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Virtus in pace acquiritur, in pressura probatur, approbatur in victoria, St. Bernard.'2
LITERATURE. — The Works of St. Bernard, ed. by MABILLON, 2 vols. Paris, 1667, reprinted with additions in Migne, 182-185, Engl. trans, by SAML. J. EALES, London, 1889, 2 vols. — Xenia Bernardino,, a Memorial ed. by Cistercian convents of Austro-Hungary, 6 vols. Vienna, 1891. — LEOP. JANAUSCIIEK : Bibliographia Bernardino,, Vienna, 1891. The tract De considerations, trans, by Bp. J. H. REINKENS, Mlinster, 1870.
BIOGRAPHIES. — Contemporary, in Migne, vol. 185 : 1. the so-called Vitaprima, in six parts, by WILLIAM OF THIERRY (while Bernard was still living), GAUFRID OF CLAIRVAUX, and ERNALD, abbot of Bona Vallis ; II. the Vita secunda, by ALANUS OF AUXERRE ; III. Fragments collected by GAUFRID ; IV. a Life, by JOHN THE HERMIT, full of legendary materials. — Modern, by NEANDER, Berlin, 1813, 1848, 1868, new ed. with Introd. and Notes, by * S. M. DEUTSCH, 2 vols. Gotha, 1889. Engl. trans. London, 1843. — ELLENDOUF, Essen, 1837. — ABBE T. RATISBONNE, 2 vols. Paris, 1841, etc. Full of enthusiasm for Bernard as a saint. — * J. C. MORI- SON, London, 1863; rev. ed. 1868, 1884. Cool and impartial. — CAPE- FIGUE, Paris, 1866. — CIIEVALLIER, 2 vols. Lille, 1888. — HOFMEISTER, Berlin, 1891.— EALES (Rom. Cath.), London, 1891. — * RICHARD S. STORRS, 1892, stimulating and eloquent. — *L'ABBE E. VACANDARD, 2 vols. Paris, 1895, 2d ed. 1897. A thorough study following a number of
1 As early as 1223 such Cistercians are called fugitives by the General Chapter. Contrasting the Cistercians with the Dominicans, Matthew Paris, an. 1255, Luard's ed., V. 529, says of them, " They do not wander through the cities and towns, but they remain quietly shut up within the walls of their domiciles, obeying their superiors."
2 Ep.j 126 ; Migne, 182, 271.