Description
Book SynopsisA study of the involvement of the Cistercian Order in the events surrounding the outbreak of heresy - particularly that of the Cathars and the resulting Albigensian Crusade - in southern France. Led by the example of Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian monks turned their attention to the world outside the monastery walls in response to the threat posed by heretical Christians, in particular the Cathars. The white monks, withother intellectuals, turned to pen, pulpit and popular preaching to counteract heresy, some accepting posts as bishops and papal legates, helping and even directing the Albigensian crusade, and contributing to the formulation ofprocedures for inquisition. Kienzle examines this important but little-studied aspect of Cistercian history to discover how and why the Order undertook endeavours that drew the monks outside their monastic vocation. The analysis of texts about the preaching campaigns and their contexts illuminate the ways in which medieval monastic authors perceived heresy, preached, and wrote against it. Professor BEVERLY MAYNE KIENZLE teaches at Harvard Divinity School.
Trade ReviewLearned and thoughtful. HISTORY * A particularly helpful introduction to a group of key issues in twelfth-century history still inadequately recognised. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
Table of ContentsAppendix to introduction: deconstructing - close reading, rhetorical criticism, and historiography of persecution and heresy. The Lord's vineyard in the 12th century; monastic spirituality and literature - the domestic vineyard; Bernard of Clairvaux, the 1143/44 sermons and the 1145 preaching mission - from the domestic to the Lord's vineyard; Henry of Clairvaux, the 1178 and 1181 missions, and the campaign against the Waldensians - driving the foxes from the vineyard; Innocent III's papacy and the Crusade years, 1198-1229 - weeding the vineyard; Helinand of Froidmont and the events of 1229 - planting virtues in the vineyard.
