La présence cistercienne dans les villes du Midi : un investissement limité ?

Abstract

Escaping from the world is one of the constitutive elements of the Cistercian order which, from its origins, forbade its member to live in towns. Even in the 13th and 14th centuries, Cistercian inurbamento in Southern France was limited to colleges in Montpellier and Toulouse, as well as to the establishment of small communities of nuns on the outskirts of certain towns, mainly in Provence. Nevertheless, by the second half of the 12th century, Cistercians had implemented urban posts for several reasons, whether economic or institutional (due to the mobility induced by the running of the order), which brought lay-brothers but also White Monks to stay in towns. Furthermore, from the mid-13th century to the beginning of the crises which rose at the end of the Middle Ages, Cistercians took an active part in the expansion of cities in the regions around Toulouse and of Gascogne, either with the foundation of fortified villages (bastides), for instance in Gimont, Grenade or Beaumont-de-Lomagne, or in splitting up their lands located near cities, as Gadselve did in Toulouse. Some White Monks decided to share their lives between desert and town (starting with Saint Bernard or Folquet de Marseille). These phenomena call to reconsider the idea of a Cistercian order fundamentally cut off from the world.