The Problem of Reform in the Irish Cistercian Monasteries and the Attempted Solution of Stephen of Lexington in 1228
The constitutional reorganisation which accompanied the original Cistercian reform was revolutionary and influenced all forms of religious vocation within the Church. The individual monastery was reinstated as complete and independent in itself, in opposition to the ‘centralisation monarchique’ of C...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1964
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| In: |
The journal of ecclesiastical history
Year: 1964, Volume: 15, Issue: 2, Pages: 186-191 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The constitutional reorganisation which accompanied the original Cistercian reform was revolutionary and influenced all forms of religious vocation within the Church. The individual monastery was reinstated as complete and independent in itself, in opposition to the ‘centralisation monarchique’ of Cluny, but each monastery was also part of an order and was under the discipline of the order. The first genuine concept of a religious order had been introduced and many of its details were followed or forced upon all forms of black-monk monasticism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, at the time when the concept itself was being utilised by the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The reform had four general characteristics: the mother house was given pre-eminence within the order; an annual general chapter of all the abbots was established as the supreme legislative body; regular visitations of daughter houses by the abbot of the founding house were a means of supervision; and all of this was combined to form an administrative and disciplinary system capable of securing the fourth characteristic, the unity of observance throughout the order. This was the observance initially followed at Citeaux itself and represented a closer and even literal following of the Rule of St. Benedict, but it was to be secured by a constitutional organisation that drew no inspiration from the Rule. This organisation depended upon a two-fold supervision: horizontally, through the annual general chapter of the abbots of the order, and vertically, through the regular visitations of daughter houses by the abbot of the founding house, or his representative. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-7637 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of ecclesiastical history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S002204690005987X |