Cistercians, heresy, and Crusade in Occitania, 1145-1229 : preaching in the Lord's vineyard

A 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. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW: 'Kienzle seeks in the preaching of twelfth-century Cistercians the key to the apparent contradiction between their dedication to withdrawal and seclusion from the affairs of the world, and the increasing and prominent involvement of successive leaders of the Order in the pursuit of heresy in the Languedoc, and the organisation and leadership of the Albigensian crusade... The clarity [of her work], care for every aspect of the context of the preaching, and level-headed command of the scholarship, will make it a particularly helpful introduction to a group of key issues in twelfth-century histor still inadequately recognised.' 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, with other 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 of procedures 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 "Led by the example of Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian monks, respected as twelfth-century Europe's holiest and brightest men, embarked on preaching missions against dissidents in southern France from 1145 to 1229." "The white monks turned their attention outside the monastery to a world they viewed as threatened and threatening, a social order in danger of collapse because dissident Christians, particularly the Cathars, were undermining it. Cistercians and other intellectuals resorted to pen, pulpit and popular preaching in the hope of eliminating the danger from their midst. Some Cistercians accepted posts as bishops and papal legates who aided and even directed the Albigensian Crusade and who contributed to establishing procedures of inquisition." "The present book examines this important but little-studied aspect of Cistercian history to probe how and why the Order undertook endeavours that drew the monks outside their monastic vocation. The analysis of texts about the preaching campaigns, and of their contexts, seeks to retrieve the role of preaching and to reconstruct what was preached in the light of its historical and specifically monastic context. Monastic texts and their contexts furnish the keys to understanding how medieval monastic authors perceived heresy, preached, and wrote against it."--Jacket

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, with other 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 of procedures 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.

CONTENTS 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 9 CHRONOLOGY 15 PREFACE 18 Introduction 21 Appendix to Introduction Deconstructing: Close Reading, Rhetorical Criticism, and Historiography of Persecution and Heresy 36 1. The Lord's Vineyard in the Twelfth Century 45 2. Monastic Spirituality and Literature: the Domestic Vineyard 76 3. Bernard of Clairvaux, the 1143/44 Sermons and the 1145 Preaching Mission: From the Domestic to the Lord's Vineyard 98 4. Henry of Clairvaux, the 1178 and 1181 Missions, and the Campaign against the Waldensians: Driving the Foxes from the Vineyard 129 5. Innocent III's Papacy and the Crusade Years, 1198-1229: 155 6. Hélinand of Froidmont and the Events of 1229: Planting Virtues in the Vineyard 194 CONCLUSION 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY 239 INDEX 259