The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe 1090–1500 by Emilia Jamroziak (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe 1090–1500 by Emilia Jamroziak Greg Peters Emilia Jamroziak, The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe 1090–1500 ( London and New York: Routledge 2013) vii + 316 pp. There is never a shortage of books on some aspect of medieval Cistercian life. Thanks to Cistercian Publications the works of many of the primary authors of early Cistercian history are available in translation and additional volumes arrive each year. Yet, a volume on the general history of the Cistercian order from its founding in 1098 to the eve of the Reformation has not been [End Page 247] forthcoming. Ever since Constance Berman’s The Cistercian Evolution: The Invention of a Religious Order in Twelfth-Century Europe (2000) there has been much debate over the exact origins of the Cistercian order (or, for some, the so-called “order”) and Jamroziak’s volume is able to benefit from those debates, providing an up to date account of early Cistercian history. Jamroziak, who rightly states that too much of early Cistercian history remains in the twelfth century, carries her account forward to the close of the Middle Ages. Furthermore, Jamroziak’s source material ranges across the breadth of the Cistercian world, citing many examples not only from western Europe but also from the eastern European countries. This breadth of source material provides a more holistic account of the Cistercian enterprise, allowing Jamroziak to question whether the Cistercian order should not be considered Europe’s first multinational organization. The Cistercian Order contains eight chapters, beginning with the origins of the Cistercian experiment, and then investigating its spread across Europe, along with its relationships to the lay world. One chapter each is dedicated to Cistercian nuns, visual culture, economy, and intellectual activity. Jamroziak ends with a discussion of whether there was ever a crisis of the Cistercian order in the late Middle Ages as is often stated in past Cistercian historiography. Regarding her treatment of the origins of Cîteaux Jamroziak walks a careful line between those who adhere to a more traditional understanding of the founding of the New Monastery (à la Louis Lekai and Chrysogonus Waddell) and those who would differ from this perspective (à la Brian Patrick McGuire and Berman). Jamroziak does not necessarily take sides nor does she simply leave the reader with a confused understanding. Rather, she acknowledges that there are areas in the older historiography that need correction (e.g., that Cîteaux was on the verge of collapse until Bernard of Clairvaux arrived) while at the same time welcoming the newer historiography’s insistence that early Cistercian history is more organic and less structured than previously assumed. All in all, Jamroziak presents a nuanced account of Cistercian origins. Another highlight of the book is the author’s account of Cistercian intellectual activity (see chapter 7). Whereas someone already familiar with Cistercian history would expect a fair amount of coverage of Bernardine spirituality, for example; Jamroziak instead offers a robust account of the Cistercians and their relationship to and in the newly-founded monasteries of the thirteenth and fourteenth century. She shows that the Cistercians, alongside the Franciscans and Dominicans, became scholars in their own right, opening the College of Bernard in Paris and graduating a larger amount of well-rounded students from the new universities than any other religious order. Right when Jamroziak could have fallen into stereotyping the Cistercians as monastic theologians concerned with cultivating an affective spirituality (which may, in fact, be true) she instead presents a picture of Cistercian life that is too often neglected—that they were serious scholars who could give the more well-known friar-scholars a run for their money! A drawback is the unfortunate decision not to include a bibliography. Reading one of the last footnotes of a chapter in an abbreviated fashion and then having to hunt backwards for the full reference seems unnecessary. For a work of this scholarly quality a bibliography is a must. As well, there is no [End Page 248] index of the modern authors Jamroziak employed, which would also aid in the book’s usefulness. In short, this book needed better editing and more thought should have been given to the...