RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cistercians
Tension between the two orders is evident in the exclusion of the mendicant friars from the studies of the Cistercians, and in the rule that
3. Gradual no member of the order should go Decay of to confession to a priest of another the Order, order. Yet the decay of the order was
due mainly and essentially to inner causes. The riches accumulated through industry and economy gradually exercised a detrimental influence on the life of the brothers. The remark of Ca-sarius of Heisterbach (q.v.) on the ancient monasteries, " Religion brought forth riches, riches destroyed religion," proved true also with regard to the Cistercians. To this must be added the impossibility of further colonization. Deprived of its strongest outward incentive, the order rapidly declined in inner zeal and energy. The life became lax. General chapters sought to stem the tide, and popes also tried to interfere (as Clement IV. in 1265 and Benedict XII. in 1335). The fourteenth century and later witnessed the financial decay of many monasteries. Under the laxity of discipline and the increasing demoralization the former industry and strict economy suffered. While it proved impossible to reform the entire order, two new congregations were organized in the fifteenth century, the Congregatio regularis observantice regnorum Hispanicorum in Spain (1425) and the Congregatio Italica S. Bernardi, definitively confirmed by Julius II. in 1511 in Lombardy and Tuscany, which separated almost entirely from the order and observed greater strictness. It must also be mentioned that, under the incitement of the mendicant friars, the Cistercians cultivated scientific pursuits to a certain degree and founded sttidia generalia, of which the college of St. Bernard at Paris was the most important. These measures, however, were not sufficient to induce scientific productiveness on a large scale, and services rendered by the Cistercians in that line are insignificant compared with those of the Dominicans and Franciscans.
Through the Reformation the order lost all its possessions in England and Scotland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and the greater
4. History part in Germany. It retained them Since the in France, but after the concordat of Reforma- 1516 it suffered under the appoint-
tion. ment of abbots in commendam by the royal power. Even the Counterreformation did not help the order much. It had no more any important practical tasks, and the large body of the order proved incapable of returning to the austerity of ancient monasticism. Nevertheless, efforts of this kind were not wanting and led in part to the formation of new branches, such as the Congregatio Lusitana, confirmed in 1567 by Pius V., the Feuillants after 1506, who spread in France and Italy, and others in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The reform, surpassing in austerity even the Carthusians, which was introduced by Abbot Ranee in the monastery of La Trappe did not attain to much importance until after the French Revolution. From these branches must be distinguished the congregations, improperly so called, which united after the fashion
of provinces, when the linece and the relation of filiation had lost much of their importance, such as the Polish or Pelpline and the Upper German, with the monastery Salem (Salmansweiler) as center. Many interesting details concerning conditions in the seventeenth century are learned from notes of a monk of Raittenhaslach {Drey Raisen nach Cistertz, Cistercienser-Chronik, iv., 1892, 45sqq.)in 1605, 1609, and 1615, and in Joseph Meglinger's Iter Cisterciense von 1667 {M PL, clxxxv. 1565-1622), and from the journey of Abbot Laurentius Scipio of Ossegg to the general chapter in th.Q jesLV {Cistercienser-Chronik, viii. , 1896, 289). In spite of all losses, the number of Cistercian monasteries was still great in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. From that time on the order received blows which left only a few scanty remains of this once powerful community. In Austria Joseph II. confiscated a large number of the monasteries; the French Revolution dissolved the order in its mother country; its most venerable places, Citeaux and Clairvaux, have since then been partly destroyed. New losses were caused by the decree of 1803 passed by the imperial deputation and by the secularization in Prussia in 1810. In 1834 the abbeys in Portugal and in 1835 those in Spain were abolished, and the like fate befell the Polish under Nicholas I. On the other hand, a restoration of the former abbey Senanque in the Vaucluse took place in 1854, which was followed by the founding of some others.
At present the order consists of: 1. The Observantia communis, comprising (1) the Congregatio S. Bernardi in Italia ; (2) the vicariate in Belgium;
(3) the Austro-Hungarian province of the order;
(4) the Swiss-German province. II. The Observantia media, to which belong (1) the congregation of Senanque; (2) the Trappenses mitigati of Casamari. III. The Observantia stricta (Trappists), who, however, were entirely separated in 1892 from the jurisdiction of the general abbot chosen by the Observantia communis. More particulars concerning the present organization and rules of the different congregations are given in the article Ueber die Observanzen der Cistercienser in the Cistercienser-Chronik, vii (1895), 117 sqq.
S. M. Dbutsch.
Bibliography: The only reliable source for the early history of Citeaux is the Exordium ordinis Cisterciensis (the so-called Exordium parvum), by Stephen Harding, in MPL, clxvi. 1501-10. Of a partly legendary character is the Exordium magnum O. C, MPL, clxxxv. 995-1198. For the time from 1115 to 1153 Bernard of Clairvaux and the older biographies of him must be consulted. An important source for the history of the order are the resolutions of the general chapters, of which the most copious collection is in Martfene and Durand, Thesaurus novus, iv. 1243-1646, Paris, 1717. The basis of all later works on the order is L. Janauschek, Originum Cisterciensium, vol. i., Vienna, 1877, containing the first trustworthy list of all Cistercian abbeys. Collections of the regulations of the order are contained in P. Guignard, Les Monuments primitifs de la regie Cisiercienne, Dijon, 1878; Nomasticon seu antiquiores O. C. constitution's a Juliana Paris, Fulcardimontis abbate eoUectm, Pans, 1 664, editio nova usque ad nostra tempora deducta a R. P
Hug. Sejalon, Solesmes, 1892. Consult further: O. de Visch, Bibliotheca scriptorum sacri O. C, 'Oona.i, 164.1, Cologne, 1656: B. Tissier, Bibliotheca patrum Cisterciensium, 2 vols., Bonofonte, 1660-69; Angelus Manrique Cisterciensium . annalium tomi iv, l^yons, 1D4- o» (reaching to the year 1236; very important, yet to be
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