The Crisis of Western Monasticism, 1050–1130

Abstract

THE second half of the eleventh century and the first three decades of the twelfth long been regarded as an extremely critical period in the development of Western monasticism. Generally speaking, these eight decades witnessed the ending of the Benedictine centuries, that long period of early medieval history, stretching over half a millenium, in which the fate not only of religion but also of culture and civilization in Western Europe was in large part determined by the work of the black monks. Several great scholars, among them Hauck, Sackut, Knowles, and Hallinger,' made clear this central theme in early medieval history. It has been shown that St. Benedict intended to create a religious institution which would be a refuge for the more devout Latin Christians who have lost faith in civilization but will not give up faith in God, as Dean Inge said of the early medieval mystics.2 In the midst of a falling world, a widespread pessimism encouraged the conviction that the promised salvation could only be attained by withdrawal from society. But in succeeding centuries it became evident that the walls of the monastery could not effectively cut off the monks from the life of the surrounding society, as St. Benedict had intended. Early medieval society, so pitifully lacking in adequate leadership and effective institutions, could not afford to lose the labor and talents of the monks, nor could it fail to enlist in its service an institution that exhibited remarkable powers of survival in the midst of political disorganization. Consequently by the Carolingian period the Benedictine monastery had, as it were, come to be absorbed into society. By the ninth century its mem-