Dear all,
Thanks so much for the references and suggestions. Now I know that
Beverly Kienzle is working on the Cistercians' preaching of the
Albigensian crusade, and if I remember correctly, is on the list,
so I offer these comments warily. As far as I know, very
little work has been done on the relation of the Cistercians to the moral
theologians who studied under Peter the Chanter (Jacques de Vitry for
one), who for the most part became either secular prelates, or in
Jacques' case, an Augustinian canon regular. Their emphasis upon the
vita apostolica as a pastoral movement contrasted with the earlier
interpretation of the vita apostolica as communal life--if I interpreted
Giles Constable's article correctly. We know that James of Vitry and
Oliver of Paderborn had deep links with Cistercian houses, so how did
they reconcile their hi-jacking of the moral high ground with their
friendship with Cistercian houses? Also, did they approve or disapprove
of the Cistercians' involvement with pastoral care, particularly
preaching?
This is part of a larger question--what sort of role models
did Paris reformers
such as Jacques use in describing their role as preachers? In Jacques'
case, he
certainly knew of Neufmoustier, the abbey founded by Peter the Hermit
(part of yet another reform tradition), and of Bernard's own crusade
preaching, as he quotes extensively from De Consideratione. There are
also the seven preachers he mentions in his Historia Occidentalis, one of
them (Adam of Perseigne) a Cistercian. Yet he builds up Fulk of Neuilly,
a parish priest, as the ideal provider of pastoral care rather than a
Cistercian. Is he thus suggesting that the function of pastoral care
assumed by default by the Cistercians and other orders ought to revert
back to the
'proper' care providers--the secular clergy? What does this mean for the
role of the religious orders in society?
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