medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I am wondering if somebody may help me solve a question that I
am working on with regard to the problem of the imposition of
Observantine reform on monastic communities.
Bernard of Clairvaux posed an interesting question. Can one
force a monk to take on Cistercian observances if he professed
to follow a different interpretation (i.e. more lax according
to Bernard) of the Benedictine Rule. The idea here is related
to vows. Can one be forced to submit to a different view of
living according to the Rule when one entered and professed
according to what one saw and experienced in the monastery.
His answer was no. One cannot force Cistercian practices on a
Cluniac monastery unless the monks freely chose that form of life.
This is the problem that I have at Montserrat, where several
monks and hermits abandoned the monastery when Fernando II
initiated a reform based on Observantinism in 1479. These
monks and hermits asked for a pension after abandoning the
community in 1483 and 1484. The king denied them the pension,
ordered them to submit, and if not they could leave without
support.
This convoluted introduction is to ask whether or not
Bernard's view found its way into canon law: one cannot force
a monk to take on strict observance when he vowed to live
according to a more traditional claustral lifestyle.
The other side of this question is the general request for any
bibliographic information on how this debate might have taken
place in later medieval literature.
Thank you so much for any help in this matter,
Daniel
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