Bernard of Clairvaux's use of the vineyard image to describe his turning from the monastery to the Church and the world inspired the organization of this book and its treatment of Cistercian preaching against heresy. While antiheretical preaching constitutes the book's primary topic, it cannot be understood without an appreciation of monastic life and its inward-looking literature, more representative of the whole of monastic writing.

In the spring of 1995, I discovered the vineyard image in one of Bernard's letters while preparing an article on the abbot's preaching, but the initial research for this book dates back to the mid-1980s, after I began working on Hélinand of Froidmont's sermons. Hélinand's sermons represented a bridge for me to cross from the study of vernacular literature into the field of medieval Latin sermon studies. I discovered that Hélinand, the writer I first knew for his Old French poetry, had composed numerous Latin sermons, largely unexamined by scholars. I began to read them, to investigate the field of sermon studies, and to move, like Hélinand, from Old French poetry to Latin sermons. My first research explored the contemplative side of monastic literature with its richly imaged symbolism and experiential spirituality, a feature that still attracts me. As I explored these generally calm and meditative texts, I was jarred from time to time by the vehemence of the language used when monastic enemies came into play.