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A mission to the Orthodox? the Cistercians in Romania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Brenda M. Bolton*
Affiliation:
University of London, Westfield College

Extract

It has been said that Innocent III shared the popular belief existing at the beginning of the thirteenth century that the world would end in 1284. Perhaps this is the reason why throughout his pontificate he was eager to resolve the divisions facing mankind. These divisions were reflected in the deviations of the heretic, the beliefs of the infidel and the schism of the eastern church. In the first of these Innocent was meeting success, albeit in varying degrees, for example in Languedoc. The second and third needed his further attention. He was of the opinion that a renewed crusading effort in both east and west would be able to achieve mass conversions amongst Jews and Muslims. To this end the fourth crusade of 1204, mounted mainly by the Cistercians, came into being.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1976

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References

1 Bum, R. I., ‘Christian-Islamic Confrontation in the West: the thirteenth-century dream of conversion’, AHR 76 (1971) pp 1386-1412, 1432-34 especially p 1390Google Scholar; Southern, R. W., Western views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1962) p 42 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Innocent’s crusading appeal of April 1213 see PL 216 (1855) cols 817-22.

2 Bolton, B.M., ‘Tradition and temerity: papal attitudes to deviants 1159-1216SCH9 (1972) pp 7991 Google Scholar. Thouzellier, [C.], Catharisme et Valdéisme [en Languedoc à la fin du xii’ siècle] (2 ed Louvain 1969) pp 183212 Google Scholar provides a detailed account of the mission to Languedoc.

3 The events leading up to the fourth crusade are analysed by Brand, C. M., Byzantium confronts the West 1180-1204 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968) and Frolow, [A.], [Recherches sur] la déviation de la iv’ croisade [vers Constantinople] (Paris 1955).Google Scholar

4 Luchaire, A., Innocent III: La Question d’Orient (Paris 1907) pp 5575.Google Scholar

5 Manrique, [A.], [Cistercietises seu vertus ecclesiastici Annales a conditio Cistercio] 4 vols (Lyons 1642-1659) 3 p 6 Google Scholar. Caesarius writes ‘ita ut jam non sit regio vel insula intra metas latinitatis ubi ordo cisterciensis non sit.

6 Brown, [E.A.R.], [‘The Cistercians in the latin empire of Constantinople and Greece 1204-1276’] Traditio 14 (1958) pp 63120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar especially pp 64-78 for a consideration of Cistercian involvement in events leading up to the fourth crusade.

7 Southern, [R. W.], Western Society [and the Church in the Middle Ages] (Harmondsworth 1970) p 269 Google Scholar.

8 Ibid p 255.

9 O’Callaghan, J. F., ‘The affiliation of the Order of Calatrava with the Order of Citeaux’, ASOC 15 (1959) pp 163-93Google Scholar especially pp 171-4 and 16 (1960) pp 3-59.

10 Ibid p 176; O’Callaghan, J. F., ‘The foundation of the order of Alcantara 1176-1218’, Catholic Historical Review 47 (London 1961-2) pp 471-86Google Scholar; Burns, [R. I.], The Crusader kingdom of Valencia: [reconstruction on a thirteenth century frontier] 2 vols (Cambridge, Mass., 1967) 1 pp 173-96 Google Scholar and for a comprehensive bibliography [Tlie] Historia Occi dentals [of Jacques de Vitry] ed Hinnebusch, J. F., Spicilegium Friburgense 17 (Fribourg 1972) pp 260-2Google Scholar. Between 1213 and 1221 the knights of Avis adhered to the order of Calatrava.

11 Brown pp 64, 72–3.

12 Southern, Western Society p 257.

13 PL 215 (1855) cols 636-8 where Innocent appeals not only to Cistercians but to Cluniacs, Augustinian canons and other orders, and PL 216 (1855) col 594 where the Cistercians alone arc mentioned, ‘nos enim volentes ut ordinis Cisterciensis, religio ... in Romaniae partibus propagetur’.

14 PL 215 (1855) cols 512-17.

15 Ibid cols 358-60; Thouzellier, Catharisme et Valdéisme p 187.

16 Burns, The Crusader kingdom of Valencia, 1 p 9.

17 Villehardouin, [Geoffrey de], La Conquête [de Constantinople] ed Farai, E. (Paris 1938)Google Scholar. For a most interesting analysis of Villehardouin’s views see Beer, [J. M. A.], Villehardouin. [Epic Historian], Études de Philologie et d’histoire, 7 (Geneva 1968) pp 267 Google Scholar; Morris, C., ‘Geoffrey de Villehardouin and the conquest of Constantinople’, History, 53 (1968), pp 2434 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For possible influences on Villehardouin, Gutsch, M. R., ‘A twelfth century preacher—Fulk of Neuilly’, in The crusades and other historical essays, ed Paetow, L. J. (New York 1928) pp 183206 Google Scholar.

18 Runciman, [S.], Byzantine Style and Civilisation (Harmondsworth 1975) p 158 Google Scholar; Guntherus Parisiensis Historia Constantinopolitana, ed Riant, [P.] in Exuviae [Sacrae Constantinopolitanae] 2 vols (Geneva 1875) 1 p 119 Google Scholar.

19 Among the most recent of the secondary works on the fourth crusade are Runciman, S., A History of the Crusades 3 vols (Cambridge 1954) 3 pp 107-31Google Scholar; McNeal, E. H. and Wolff, R. L., ‘The Fourth Crusade’ in A History of the Crusades ed Setton, K.M., 2, The Later Crusades 1180-1311, ed Wolff, R.L. and Hazard, H.W. (Philadelphia 1962) pp 153-85Google Scholar; D.M. Nicol, “The Fourth Crusade and the Greek and Latin Empires 1204-1261’ CMH4 pp 275-330 and Lemerle, P., ‘Byzance et la CroisadeRelazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, 3 (Florence 1955) pp 595620.Google Scholar

20 Nicol, D. M., The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261-1413 (London 1972) pp 78 Google Scholar.

21 Luchaire, Innocent III: la question d’Orient p 59.

22 Southern, R. W., The Making of the Middle Ages (London 1967) p 62 Google Scholar.

23 LeClercq, J., ‘Les relations entre le monachisme oriental et le monachisme occidental dans le haut moyen âge’ in Le Millénaire du Mont Athos ç963-1963 2 vols (Chevetogne/Venice 1963-5)2 pp 4980 Google Scholar. Also LeClercq, J., Aux sources de la spiritualité occidentale (Paris 1964) pp 5364 Google Scholar. Another highly stimulating article which illuminates many aspects of the problem is McNulty, P. and Hamilton, B., ‘Orientale lumen et magistra latinitas: Greek influences on Western Monasticism 900-1100Millénaire du Mont Athos i pp 181-2Google Scholar.

24 Millet, [G.], [Le monastère de Daphni: Histoire, architecture, mosaïques] (Paris 1899) p 27 Google Scholar. They included men such as the emperors Baldwin I (1204-1205) and Henry of Constantinople (1206-1216), Boniface of Montferrat, king of Thessalonica (1204-1207) Otto de h Roche, Megaskyr of Athens (1205-1225) and Geoffrey de Villehardouin, lord of Achaia (1209-1230)

25 Janauschek, [L.], [Originum Cisterciensium] (Vienna 1877) I pp 218-19Google Scholar; Brown p 79 n 83; See also the history of Chortaitou by Vakalopoulos, A.E., in Epeteris Etaireias Byzan-tinon Spoudon, 15 (1939) pp 2818 Google Scholar.

26 Ceruti, A., ‘Un codice del monasterio cisterciense di Lucedio’, Archivio storico italiano, 4 ser, 8 (Florence 1881) pp 3738 Google Scholar.

27 Brown p 8.

28 Janauschek p 214; Millet p 28 n 2.

29 Janauschek p 215; Janin, R., La géographie écclesiastique de l’empire byzantin, premier partie: Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat oecuménique III: Les églises et les monastères (Paris 1953) pp 488-93Google Scholar for evidence of the location of St Stephen.

30 Ibid p 213; Santifaller, L., Beiträge zur Geschichte des lateinischen Patriarchats von Konstantitwpel (Weimar 1938) pp 956; Brown pp 82-5.Google Scholar

31 Ibid p 87, Janauschek p 219.

32 Brown pp 88-90.

33 Ibid p 95; Janauschek pp 219-20. Janin, R., ‘Les sanctuaires de Byzance sous la domination latine 1204-1261’. Études byzantines 2 (Paris 1944) p 181 Google Scholar suggests that the monastery was in Constantinople.

34 Janauschek p 227; Brown pp93-4 suggests that Zaraca may have been transferred to the Cistercian order on the initiative of Geoffrey de Villehardouin.

35 Manrique 4 p 240; Brown pp 91-2 nn 152, 153. There is an interesting short section on Cistercian nuns in the east in Historia Occidentalis, ed J. F. Hinnebusch, p 268.

36 Brown p 194 n 164.

37 Millet p 27. Many of the Cistercian foundations were installed in Greek monasteries and kept a deformed version of their former name. Chortaitou, Daphni, St Angelus in Pera, Rufinianai and St Mary de Percheio were imperial houses while the names of Zaraca, Laurus and St Mary de Verge indicate Greek origins.

38 Ibid p 30 n 2. Millet thought it quite natural that the Cistercians should establish themselves in the richest of the imperial monasteries.

39 PL 216 (1855) col 951; Potthast 1 no 4879.

40 Nicol, D. M., ‘The Papal Scandal’, SCH 13 (1976) above pp 141-68.Google Scholar

41 Runciman, Byzantine Style and Civilisation p 166.

42 Millet, pp 57-8 and plate VI. The Cistercian additions to the monastery church at Daphni, notably the Gothic exo-narthex, are described by Stikas, E. G. in Deltion tis Christianikis Archaiologikis Etaireias, ser 4, 3 (Athens 1963) pp 143 Google Scholar.

48 Ibid p 27. The face of the schismatic Pantocrator was pierced by the crusaders’ swords. See also Brooke, C. N. L., ‘Religious sentiment and church design in the later middle ages’ in Medieval Church and Society (London 1971) pp 1623 Google Scholar for discussion of the differences in church design between east and west.

44 Runciman, Byzantine Style and Civilisation p 158.

45 Baker, Derek, ‘Heresy and learning in early cistercianismSCH 9 (Cambridge 1972) P 93 Google Scholar

46 Denifle, H., Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis 4 vols (Paris 1899) 1 pp 623 Google Scholar; PL 215 (1855) cok 637-38; Southern, Making of the Middle Ages p 59.

47 Riant, [P.], Des Dépouilles Religieuses [enlévées à Constantinople au XIIIe siècle] (Paris 1875) p 68 Google Scholar.

48 Ibid p 67. Walo de Sarton, canon of Picquigny.

49 Canivez, J.M., Statuta Capitulorum Generaliam Ordinis Cisterciensis ab anno 1116 ad annum 1786 8 vols (Louvain 1933-41) I p 65 Google Scholar.

50 Ibid 1 p 28.

51 Ibid 1 p 459.

52 Ibid 1 p 468.

53 PL 216 (1855) cols 594-5 and 951-2. See also Brown, pp 80-1.

54 Ibid p 114. In 1227 the chaplain of the Cistercian convent of St Antony of Paris visited the nuns of his order in Greece. Compare the suggestion of Manrique (4 p 341) that he was there to institute their chaplains in their houses and to inspire them, with his sermons, with the severe attitude taken by the general chapter towards nuns in the west described by Southern, Western Society pp 314-18.

55 Brown p 96.

56 R. L. Wolff, ‘The organisation of the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople 1204-1261: social and administrative consequences of the Latin conquest’ Traditie 6 (1948) pp 33-60 and ‘Politics in the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople 1204-1261’ DOP 8 (1954) pp 225-95.

57 Brown pp 97-108.

58 Riant, Des Dépouilles Religieuses pp 1-30; Frolow, La déviation de la IVe croisade pp 7-8, 54-55. 58.

59 Riant, Des Dépouilles Religieuses p 6.

60 Ibid p 27; Frolow, La déviation de la IVe croisade pp 59, 65-71 for a discussion of the recrudescence of the Cult of the Passion which stimulated the collection of relics.

61 Riant, Des Dépouilles Religieuses p 185.

62 Ibid p 184.

63 Riant, Exuviae 2 pp 144-49; Brown pp 112, 115.

64 Riant, Exuviae 2 pp 147-49.

65 Ibid p 149.

66 Beer, Villehardouin p 24. He regarded covoitise as one of the greatest disasters of the expedition. Villehardouin, La Conquête p 253 ‘li uns aporta bien et li autres mauvaise-ment; que covoitise qui est racine de toz mals, ne laissa: ainz comencierent d’enqui ennavant U covotous a retenir des choses et Nostre Sire les commença mains a amer’. Clari, Robert de, Tlie Conquest of Constantinople, ed Lauer, P. (Paris 1924) pp 101-12Google Scholar, also complains of the crusaders’ cupidity for the quemun de ľost got only the leavings of the rifees hommes. Also Frolow, La déviation de la IVe croisade, p 53.

67 Rufinianai was probably abandoned soon after 1225 and Chortaitou by 1223 when its daughter house St Archangelus was put directly under the jurisdiction of Locedio. The house at Zaraca was active until 1260 while the nuns of St Mary of Percheio Hed to Italy—Brown pp 116-18.

68 Southern, Making of the Middle Ages, p 59.

69 Wolff, R.L., ‘The Latin Empire of Constantinople and the Franciscans’, Tradito 2 (1944) pp 213-37Google Scholar.