Cistercian Order

The monastic order founded in 1098 at Citeaux (Latin Cistercium) by Robert of Molesme (d. 1110); a Benedictine reform. It was a strict, even puritanical order. The monks wore unbleached clothing, and undyed wool; they ate no meat, fish, or eggs. In their unheated cells they slept on bare boards. The lay brothers worked in the fields rather than studying in the *cloister. Cistercian churches were very plain, and undecorated, without stained glass or tower. Cistercians were the first to use the *conversus, a lay brother who had left the world to serve God. However, conversi only did manual labour; their regime was fairly relaxed and they were not obliged to observe the usual religious requirements of the regular monks, so strictly observed by the Cistercians. The use of these conversi was adopted by other orders, such as the Premonstratensians. The order required its members to establish themselves away from other people and to work the land themselves; they would transform wilderness into arable or pasture. They established many granges and possessed large flocks of sheep - whose great value contributed to King Richard I's ransom. Their first house in England was at Waverley, founded in 1128; Rievaulx followed in 1132. By 1152 there were 50 Cistercian houses in England, all remote. In the 13c there were some 600 Cistercian houses, of which more than 70 were in England. The Cistercians preached the crusade against the Albigensians in 1209. Trappists are a late reform of the Cistercians. -

Cf. Cluny; Premonstratensians