It is traditional in monastic history to consider the question of when and where a decline of standards might have taken place. Well before 1200 the courtier and gossip Walter Map was attacking the Cistercians for failing to live up to their ideals. Some historians would date decadence in this order already from the death of Bernard in 1153. The Franciscans - because of their prominence - have even more been a target for criticism and even ridicule. There is the legend of Robin Hood with the corpulent Friar Tuck. Or we can turn to naughty Franciscans in Boccaccio, as in the story of friar Alberto who seduced women by convincing them that they should receive his carnal visitations as manifestations of the Archangel Gabriel.
In savouring such stories, it is important to remember that new forms of monasticism as well as mendicant orders continued to spread right into the fourteenth century. There is no space here for the story of the Carmelites or the Augustinian friars, but churchmen felt so deluged by new orders of monks, nuns and friars that there was a conscious attempt in the later thirteenth century to cut back on recognised orders.142 It is impressive how many monastic and mendicant institutions medieval Europe could support. Monks, canons and friars continued to make themselves useful by providing for the sick, lodging travellers, dispensing the sacraments, preaching and especially by providing memorials of prayer for patrons rich and poor.
And what about the women? They were present, even if they were theoretically shut off from the rest of society. Francis without his Clare is unthinkable, as is Jordan of Saxony without his Diana. The beguines, dealt with in Walter Simons' chapter, provide another dimension of religious life in community for women (as well as for men).
Wherever there were monks or friars there emerged stories to provide admonition and encouragement. The first edificatory tales were set down by Cluniacs and Cistercians, in the miraculous mould that Gregory the Great had provided in his Dialogues. The friars took over many of these tales, sometimes literally, as with the Cistercian story of how Mary hid her monks beneath her cope. Monks became Dominican friars in the mendicant version. Medieval life was rich in the telling of good stories, and monks and friars did their best to keep them in circulation.143
There was always a fear of slipping away from the standards of the founders and a desire to return to them. We can see such an effort in the papacy of Benedict XII (1334-42), much maligned as the inquisitor Jacques Fournier. Benedict had first been abbot of Cistercian Fontfroide before becoming bishop of Pamiers and spending his time listening to the endless narratives of the villagers of Montaillou. As pope, however, he devoted himself to reforming monastic orders and especially the Cistercians. His decree, Fulgens sicut stella, tried to inspire his fellow monks to return to the standards of Stephen Harding and Bernard of Clairvaux.40
Anyone who has visited the monastic ruin of Rievaulx, with its graceful arches perched against the Yorkshire hills, or who has attended the monastic hours at a Trappist Cistercian house in any corner of the world can experience something of what once was and to some extent still is in monastic life. The same is the case with the Dominicans and the Franciscans, both of whom continue in their medieval commitment to learning and to preaching. Bare ruined choirs and living communities carry on old values and make them new. Monasticism, unlike so much else from the Middle Ages, is still with us.
World History
