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    Plan détaillé Texte intégral The problem of the sources The contribution of the bishops Secular magnates: male and female Spiritual and material motivations Notes de bas de page Auteur

    Itinéraires du savoir de l’Italie à la Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle)

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    Table des matières

    Cistercian Origins in Denmark and Sweden: the Twelfth Century Founders

    Brian Patrick McGuire

    p. 85-97

    Texte intégral The problem of the sources The contribution of the bishops Secular magnates: male and female Spiritual and material motivations Notes de bas de page Auteur

    Texte intégral

    1The arrival of Cistercian monks in Denmark and Sweden from the 1140s to the 1180s is an event in the history of Scandinavia that could only have taken place with the active cooperation of two groups: the Cistercian abbots themselves and the spiritual and secular magnates of these areas of Europe.1 In what follows here, I will concentrate on the magnates, whether they were lay or ecclesiastical, who for one reason or another decided that they wanted to bring the monks to their part of the world. Scandinavian historians have long wondered about their motives, even though a primary incentive must have been the desire to share in the spiritual world that the monks brought with them.2 The Cistercians represented a new branch of monasticism, but it is important to add that they were not the only “product” available on the “market”. Traditional Benedictine monasticism had been available in Denmark since the 1080s, while in Sweden Vreta Abbey in Östergötland had existed since about 1100, even though its origins are wrapped in obscurity.3 There were communities of monks, for example, at Ringsted on Sjaelland and Veng in Jutland, and in 1135 a new monastery following the Rule of Saint Benedict was founded at Naestved.4

    2In the 1140s, however, it was considered necessary or desirable to bring communities of monks from Burgundy and Champagne. This “importation” must have been difficult and expensive, not only in terms of the distance to be covered, but also because of the size of the foundations. The Cistercians normally would have sent at least twelve brothers, plus the abbot, as well as the lay brothers who would do the heavy farm work.5 We can imagine groups of up to twenty-five men setting out from the milder mid-European climate and having to establish themselves in what one of their successors would describe as an inhospitable and distant part of the world.6 I would like in the following pages to consider only secondarily the thoughts and desires of the monks themselves but instead to concentrate on the men and women who footed the bill and made it materially and politically possible for them to establish themselves in Sweden and Denmark.

    The problem of the sources

    3In considering the foundation period from the 1140s to the 1180s, it is important to remember that most of what we know about the establishment of the first monasteries comes from sources that were written shortly before or after 1200.7 Thus the pioneering era is seen through the eyes of monks who themselves did not participate, but who felt called upon to describe the deeds of the first generation. The result is that our accounts are an expression of what one contemporary monastic historian has termed the “Cistercian propaganda machine.”8 The contents do their best to praise and glorify the Cistercian Order and its achievements. This tendency can best be seen in the Exordium magnum cisterciense, written by Conrad of Eberbach, a former Clairvaux monk, in the last years of the twelfth century, and summarizing Cistercian beginnings with edifying stories that were strung together in a kind of historical order.9 Here we find several references to monasteries in Dacia and Suecia, an indication that the Cistercians in 1200 saw these areas as two separate kingdoms.10

    4Another central source for Cistercian beginnings is the Exordium Carae Insulae, written at Øm Abbey in Jutland shortly after 1200 and taking its title from the Exordium genre of the Order.11 Here as in the “Great Exordium”, we enter into an idealized world where heroes live, fight temptation, and triumph over difficulties. There is no reason to reject such accounts out of hand, for the first Cistercians in Denmark and Sweden must have been heroic men who sacrificed a great deal in order to make their way to a land remote from their original homes. But they are also larger than life and are seen from a distance that removes their rough features.

    5The sources that are closer in time to the foundations also have their problems. The annals of the twelfth century written at the Cistercian foundation of Colbaz in what today is Poland claim that in 1143 both Alvastra and Nydala were founded: 1143 conventus missus est in Aluastrum et in Novam Vallem.12 But annals from another Cistercian house, Ryd in Schleswig, put Alvastra’s foundation at 1142 and have 1144 for both Herrisvad in Skåne and Nydala.13 The Older Zealand Chronicle, probably composed at the Cistercian abbey of Sorø, has Alvastra founded in 1143, while Nydala is not named.14

    6I could continue in this vein: the near-contemporary annals are not in agreement with each other. Most history books give 1143 as the founding year for both Alvastra and Nydala, but this is on the basis of the Colbaz Annals alone. We have the further problem that at about the same time a Cistercian house was founded on the island of Lurö on Lake Vänern. It later was moved to Lugnâs and finally to Varnhem in Västergötland. Even though we do not have the precise date for the first foundation, the monks seem to have arrived within a few years of those who came to Alvastra and Nydala.15

    7Cistercians themselves have traditionally been very caught up in the order of foundations, and so the precise date of a foundation was important for the monks. In order to distinguish between Alvastra and Nydala and to explain the precedence that Alvastra was given through the medieval centuries, the tradition was to claim that they were founded on the same day, with Alvastra in the morning and Nydala in the afternoon.16 This would give the abbot of Alvastra precedence, a fact that is probably more a reflection of the size of the monastery and the significance of its land holdings rather than of its chronological status.

    8I make no claim to solve this question and provide a secure foundation date for Alvastra or Nydala, to say nothing of Sorø or Esrum, whose precise origins are also unclear. Precisely because our best sources come decades after the original foundations, it is virtually impossible to return to the moment of creation and to give the hard facts that at a distance can seem so solid. But the first generation was all too busy in surviving to spend much time in writing about what its members were doing. This activity was a luxury for the second or third generations of monks.

    9What can we assert with certitude? I think it is sufficient to state that the first Cistercian foundations in Sweden and Denmark were at Alvastra, Nydala, Lurö (later Varnhem) and Herrisvad in the course of the 1140s. The Swedish houses had monks who came from Clairvaux, while the Herrisvad monks came from Cîteaux. This difference has usually been explained by the exhaustion of Clairvaux’s human resources in the early 1140s: there simply were no monks left available to go to Herrisvad when they were wanted.17 This may be an oversimplification: Citeaux, which had many fewer daughter houses than Clairvaux at this time, may have wanted to participate in the Scandinavian expansion of the Order.

    10In any case, the first Cistercians in Sweden came from Clairvaux, and here the personality and dynamism of its abbot, Bernard, certainly must have played a central role. But Bernard’s interest in expanding the Cistercian Order and founding new houses could only be fulfilled if he was able to ally himself with other interests: local and regional magnates as well as the papacy, which since the early years of the twelfth century had shown a special interest in the Cistercians and their structure and growth.

    11Instead of looking at the international scene and its players, I will concentrate on the Swedish founders. I will at times compare them with their Danish counterparts, but my main interest is how Swedish magnates decided to involve themselves with foreign monks. This decision to bring in a new monastic way of life cannot be taken for granted as an inevitable development. Certainly Danes and Swedes have long prided themselves on their homogeneous societies and have shown insular tendencies, which manifest themselves to this day, especially in Denmark. In the twelfth century the attitude was apparently much less restrictive and more generous.

    The contribution of the bishops

    12There could be no Cistercian foundation without the consent of the bishop.18 Alvastra and Nydala were both within the diocese of Linköping, and here the bishop was Gislo, who is known to have attended an important church synod in 1139 in Lund, led by Archbishop Eskil, who had assumed his post there in 1137. At the synod was the papal legate, Theodignus or Theodewin, who in the words of James France, may have used the occasion “to extol the virtues of the white monks,” as the Cistercians were called from their habits, in contrast to the black cowls of other monks who followed the Rule of Saint Benedict.19

    13Eskil later explained the origins of his enthusiasm for the Cistercians in terms of a dream he had had in his youth where a powerful woman, probably Mary, threatened to send him to hell. He managed to “buy” her out of the decree by promising to found monasteries in her honor.20 Since all Cistercian houses are dedicated to Mary, this order was perfect for him. But a story that Eskil told in about 1180, when he had retired from his archbishopric and become a monk of Clairvaux, does not necessarily explain his actions in the early 1140s. If we look at his deeds, however, we find a bishop who did his utmost to bring representatives not only of the Cistercians but also of other new orders, such as the Premonstratensians, to Scandinavia.21

    14Eskil was clearly fascinated by the new reformed monasticism and wanted to implant it in his archdiocese. Later he saw to it that the first archbishop of Uppsala was a Cistercian, Stephen of Herrisvad, and he also made use of Cistercians as his representatives in dealings with the papacy. For him the members of the order belonged to an exclusive society that represented the best elements in the reformed Church of the twelfth century: these monks were clearly bringing the truths of the Christian religion to a part of the world where Christianity was a relatively new way of belief.22

    15The Cistercians were not missionaries in the traditional sense, for they did not normally preach in public nor administer the sacraments to lay persons. But the very example of their lives could be a source of inspiration and encouragement in areas where Christian roots were shallow. As Tore Nyberg recently has shown, the first Swedish monasteries could not be established in the Lake Malar region because pagan rituals were still strong there.23 It was simply too dangerous to send a group of monks into the territory of potential enemies. So the first monks came to Västergötland and Östergötland, where Christianity had been introduced in the eleventh century and was beginning to take root.

    16We do not know if Bishop Gislo had the same strong feelings of attachment to Cistercian monks as did Archbishop Eskil, but we do know that other Scandinavian bishops valued the monks in a direct and personal manner. The segment of the Øm Abbey Chronicle (Exordium Carae Insulae) written shortly after 1200 provides a sketch of the relationship between Bishop Svend of Århus and the monks.24 He is described as going out of his way to look after their interests. Naturally the portrait is idealized and almost reaches the realm of hagiography, but it is at the same time clear that Svend did his utmost to support the monks both economically and politically. At a time when the diocesan structure was probably weak, the Cistercians provided a focus of religious life that would have been an encouragement for a bishop in a large diocese with endless duties. We have indications that both Øm and Løgumkloster built residences for their bishops to accommodate them on their visits.25 They were welcome to come and stay for shorter or longer periods, so long as they did not assert some extensive right to do so, as Svend’s later thirteenth century successor at Århus tried to do.

    17A wonderful indication of the attachment a Scandinavian bishop could express to a Cistercian monastery is a document from the 1190s drawn up on behalf of the monks of Løgum by the bishop of Ribe.26 Bishop Omer here described how the monastery had been destroyed by a fire which obliterated all its early charters. In asserting the monks’ rights and privileges in his diocese, he also declared his affection for the place and its inhabitants, whom he claimed he “especially with affection embraced more as members of my household and my own people.”27 However likely it may be that the Cistercians helped draw up this important document, it is inconceivable that the bishop would have let them make statements that had nothing to do with his intentions or beliefs. In using a language of affectivity, Omer attached himself to the rich world of bonds of friendship that the Cistercians had helped develop in the previous decades.28 We cannot dismiss such language as pure flattery, for it is based on the Gospels and developed in terms of the bonds within the monastery. The Cistercians were willing to share the sweetness of such attachments with men in the Church who appreciated what they were doing. Thus we find in Bernard of Clairvaux’s own biography of the archbishop of Armagh, Malachy an assertion of a similar friendship between the monks of Clairvaux and a bishop.29 Similarly in a letter from Bernard’s secretary Geoffrey of Auxerre after the death of Bernard, we find described in exalted language the bond that existed between Archbishop Eskil and the Clairvaux monks.30

    18Much Danish research has ignored such bonds and instead emphasized legal matters, such as the development of exemption for the monasteries from the authority of their diocesan bishops. Tore Nyberg has diplomatically suggested that twentieth-century studies of the development of Cistercian monasticism may have overemphasized the importance of such exemptions.31 I would go much further: the development of a legal apparatus to protect the monasteries from the demands of bishops was until the middle of the thirteenth century apparently a secondary matter. In everyday life there was much sympathy and understanding between bishops and monasteries. Affective bonds between abbots and bishops or bishops and whole monasteries were probably essential in assuring the economic and political survival of the new foundations. If the bishop of Århus, in a Denmark that officially had been Christian since the tenth century, could find so much inspiration and consolation in his Cistercian foundation, all the more must the bishop of Linköping, where Christianity had come much later. A visit to a Cistercian monastery would have provided a welcome rest from episcopal duties, as well as spiritual inspiration from the liturgy and good conversations about spiritual topics. The monks represented the existence of a church grounded in learning and traditions, and any native Danish or Swedish bishop of the twelfth century could here share in friendship, learning and prayer.

    Secular magnates: male and female

    19Traditional modern accounts of the foundation of monasteries emphasize the role of kings and great lords in inviting monks and supporting them with land grants and other privileges.32 I accept that the monks of Alvastra and Nydala could have never established themselves without the support of King Sverker the Elder (c. 1130-56), but it is noteworthy that it is not he but his wife Ulvhild or Ulfhild who is mentioned in the account of the foundation of Alvastra contained in the Exordium magnum.33 It tells how Bernard “sent a group of brothers to these places at the request of a religious woman, the Queen of Sweden.” As James France has already pointed out, however, another Cistercian source, the account of the foundation of Vitskøl in Jutland, ascribes the foundation of Alvastra as well as Varnhem to both Sverker and Ulvhild. Vitskøl was founded by monks from Varnhem and thus the interest in describing the beginnings of both monasteries.34

    20The Vitskøl narrative, which was probably written at Varnhem shortly before or after 1200, provides us with our fullest near-contemporary account of the beginnings of a Swedish Cistercian abbey. We are told how a “noble woman” named Sigrid moved the monks from an unsuitable site at Lugnâs to Varnhem, near Skara in Västergötland. Then she changed her mind, after she was “corrupted by the advice of a certain powerful man.”35 She threw the monks out of their new home. God punished her, however: she was struck down by both leprosy and blindness and so to “placate the wrath of the almighty God” she begged the abbot, Henry, to return to Varnhem.36 As a penance Sigrid to the end of her life lived off the crumbs from the brothers’table. The “powerful man” may have been King Sverker himself, or his rival, the later King Erik (1156-60). Sigrid’s opposition, however, is not a unique event. The same transformation took place, again according to the Vitskøl narrative, with the wife of King Erik, Christina, who is called a relative of Sigrid’s. She is described as having done everything in her power to get rid of the monks, even in having local women trespassing on the monastery’s territory in order to defecate there. On Palm Sunday women danced in the cloister itself, threw off their clothes, and started a fire. The queen sent a messenger to Abbot Henry with the order that he destroy “a certain large house in which the abbot used to copy liturgical books.”37 He was to transfer this residence to another place.

    21At this point Abbot Henry is said to have decided to go to the Cistercian General Chapter at Cîteaux in order to obtain permission to go to the pope and obtain an interdict to punish the queen. But on his way he stopped at Roskilde and met Archbishop Eskil, who suggested the monks come to Denmark. In the end, after the victory of Valdemar over his rivals in 1157, the monks settled at Vitskøl on land on the Limfjord that the new Danish king gave him. The chronicler adds, however, that the “greater and better part” of the monks eventually returned to Varnhem.38

    22No explanation is given for the bad behaviour of Queen Christina, but we can compare the incident with what happened to the Cistercians who were given the monastic foundation at Veng Abbey and here were opposed by a woman known as the Lady Margrethe, described in the Øm Abbey Chronicle as a relation of King Valdemar I.39 Her motive is clearer than Queen Christina’s: she wanted to make her own monastic foundation, of women, and the Cistercian monks were in her way. Eventually they left Veng as unsuitable, but the narrator of the Chronicle, writing some decades later, felt that they had been badly treated and had been unable to get justice from the king.

    23Such stories give rise to many questions: why did aristocratic and royal women first support Cistercian foundations and later oppose them? Why did they go so far as trying to drive the monks off the land that these women had initially given them? The answer may be connected to the physical and emotional distance the early Cistercians tried to maintain from women. Just as much as they could form strong affective bonds with churchmen, the early Cistercians were wary about getting involved with women. This is a controversial topic, and some recent interpreters have tried to make a case for close bonds.40 But my conclusion from the sources is that the monks until the end of the twelfth century tried to keep women at as great a distance as possible from their everyday lives.41 Swedish and Danish women of great families may have resented this attitude and have regretted their initial support. I concede that such an interpretation is merely an educated guess. With the monks at Veng, however, we are told that their female oppressor had another agenda: she wanted female monastics, something that the first Cistercians did not want to foster.

    24Another factor may have been a general ambivalence among Scandinavian magnates about giving away land. For them every gift was a temporary concession, not a permanent legal act, as the Danish historian Kim Esmark has shown in a seminal article.42 The monks who came from a part of Europe where canon law was beginning to take effect would not have understood or sympathized with this attitude. In their minds, what once was given was handed over for all eternity, while Queen Sigrid clearly believed she had the right to take back what had once been handed over.

    25In any case it is clear that the beginnings of Cistercian monasticism in Sweden and Denmark are just as much the result of powerful women as of their husbands, if not more so. The monks represented a spiritual power in which influential lay people wanted to share. For unclear reasons, some of these quickly became disappointed in the living manifestation of this power and thought they had the prerogative to remove the monks. Our monastic sources make it impossible to get inside the heads of these lay magnates, but we can at least conclude that the introduction of Cistercian monasticism to Denmark and Sweden was as much a project for powerful women as it was for men.

    Spiritual and material motivations

    26Decades of reading medieval sources have failed to convince me that laypersons lived in constant fear of going to hell and so contributed to monasteries solely in order to save their souls. At the same time, however, I recognize the dilemma of people, rich and poor, who were subject to disease and for whom death was always just around the corner. The Sigrid who was struck by some undefined skin disease and also by blindness had every reason to turn to the monks for help, in repenting her harsh treatment of them. It may be literally true that she ended her life in living off the crumbs of their table, or this may be a literary image to describe an emotional and spiritual dependence on the monks. In any case, spiritual and material bonds cannot be separated in the Middle Ages: monasteries are places for both kinds of sustenance, in the hospitality they gave guests rich and poor and in the prayers they offered for their founders and later donors.

    27For this reason some of the newest Swedish research on medieval Scandinavia lacks an important dimension of spirituality. I would especially point to the recent work of Lars Hermanson, who sees twelfth-century Denmark almost solely in terms of a materialistic view of history.43 Behind all the political alliances and the desire for power there were human persons with emotional lives and yearnings for bonds of friendship with each other and with the saints. Such closeness could be mediated through contact and devotion to monastic people, who had a special intimacy with the saints as God’s friends.

    28In a careful study of Danish Cistercian monasteries, the German historian Thomas Hill tried to establish that they could be characterized as “house monasteries”, each founded by a family in order to take care of its spiritual needs.44 I find this model too narrow to describe what was happening in Cistercian monasticism. It may describe an earlier stage of monasticism before the twelfth century, but as Tore Nyberg so well points out in his recent work, the Cistercians represented a monastic way of life that tried to create a certain distance from the needs and requirements of their patrons. Nyberg distinguishes between houses like Alvastra that to some extent did follow the old pattern and represented the interests of a royal founder, and Nydala which its greater isolation would have better incarnated the new Cistercian spirit of keeping a distance to the lay world.45

    29Nyberg was inspired by the contrast he saw between the Benedictine monasticism at Rjngsted, where the Danish king did his best to maintain control for family purposes, and the new foundation at Naestved, where a magnate, Peder Bodilsen, in 1135 brought in a reformed monasticism that kept lay interests at a distance. I am not so sure if this distinction can be translated to Cistercian foundations. Certainly Alvastra had royal patronage and was more richly endowed than Nydala, but both monasteries had abbots whose primary loyalty was to the Order of Cîteaux and not to the Swedish king and queen, whoever they might be. The idea of a “Hauskloster”, or even of a royal as opposed to an episcopal monastery, concedes too much to the founders. In reality the Cistercians were fiercely independent, for they saw themselves as torchbearers for a new kind of monasticism, which kept a greater distance from lay society than traditional Benedictine life had done.

    30At the same time as they kept a distance, however, the monks conceded their dependence. The foundation chronicles of the early thirteenth century are a paradoxical mixture that partly concedes this need for outside support and partly asserts monastic autonomy. The paradox could be resolved when the outside world accepted the monks’ conditions and thus could be let inside to the spiritual warmth of the cloistered lives. This could happen especially for a bishop such as Svend at Århus or Omer at Ribe, and presumably also for some of the Swedish bishops of the early thirteenth century. For such men the Cistercians were more than a spiritual investment: they were friends in whose company the bishops could enjoy themselves. A sense of this closeness is provided by the brief biography of Bishop Gunner of Viborg, a former Cistercian abbot of Vitsk0l. Here is a man who as bishop tried to maintain his monastic discipline and so combined the life of a church leader with Cistercian asceticism.46

    31Gunner’s biography provides us with a tantalizing look inside monastic ideals at Vitskøl in the mid-thirteenth century. There is no comparable Swedish source, but the fact remains that Swedish bishops and secular magnates, just as their Danish counterparts, decided to invite the Cistercians to their part of the world and made sure that they remained there. The monks must have managed to convince these people, both men and women, that they were genuine in their devotion. The Cistercians offered a taste of the community and friendship that in Christian belief is the point of departure for everlasting life.

    Notes de bas de page

    1 For background, see B. P. McGuire, The Cistercians in Denmark, Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications, 1982, and J. France, The Cistercians in Scandinavia, Kalamazoo, 1992, esp. p. 27-42 for Sweden. The Danish Roman Catholic priest E. Ortved’s Cistercieordenen og dens Klostre i Norden, especially Vol. 2, Sveriges Klostre, Copenhagen, 1933, is still useful. In what follows here I am especially dependent on T. Nyberg’s recent synthesis, Monasticism in North-Western Europe, 800-1200, Aldershot, Eng., 2000.

    2 As in A. E. Christensen’s question in his segment of Danmarks historie. Bind 1: Tiden indtil 1340, Copenhagen, 1977, p. 318: Er det da muligt at finde mere konkrete motiver ved siden af fromhed end ønsket om, at velvillige kirke og klostermaend udgjorde en moralsk stiøtte for kongemagten? (“Is it then possible to find more concrete motives besides piety than the desire that well-intentioned churchmen and monastics provided moral support for royal power?”).

    3 For Vreta, see T. Nyberg (note 1 above), p. 81-83. For Denmark in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, see Nyberg’s chapters four and five.

    4 The foundation charter is contained in Diplomatarium Danicum Række 1, vol. 2, nr. 64. For background, T. Nyberg, p. 104-109.

    5 See the Summa cartae caritatis, the Cistercian constitution from the twelfth century, section 8, De construendis abbatiis, with its strict requirements not only for personnel but also for the liturgical books to be brought by the monks and the buildings which were supposed to be completed before the monks even arrived: Narrative and Legislative Texts from Early Cîteaux, C. Waddell (ed.), Cîteaux-Commentarii cistercienses, 1999, p. 187.

    6 See J. France (note 1 above), p. 2-3, for a number of these references.

    7 For a review of the central Danish sources, see B. P. McGuire (note 1 above), p. 16-21.

    8 This historian is Michael Casey, monk of the Trappist-Cistercian abbey of Tarrawarra in Australia. He is one of the outstanding experts on Cistercian history and spirituality, and I have heard him use the phrase in a 1990 plenary lecture at the Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in connection with the 900th anniversary of the birth of Bernard of Clairvaux.

    9 Exordium magnum cisterciense sive narratio de initio cisterciensis ordinis, Bruno Griesser (ed.), Rome, Editiones Cistercienses, 1961.

    10 Note that the use of the terms “Sweden” and “Denmark” for the twelfth century is an anachronism. In writing about the period, we assume on the basis of what later happened that Sweden was a kingdom, while in actuality the areas of Västergötland, Östergötland and Mälarn were very much separate. It is only after the end of the twelfth century that the geographical names correspond to actual kingdoms.

    11 The Latin original is to be found in Scriptores Minores Historiae Danicae Medii Aevi, vol. 2, M. Cl. Gertz (ed.), Copenhagen, 1922 and 1970, p. 158-92. For background, see B. P. McGuire, Conflict and Continuity at Øm Abbey, Copenhagen, 1976.

    12 Danmarks Middelalderlige Annaler, E. Kroman (ed.), Copenhagen, 1980, p. 10.

    13 Danmarks Middelalderlige Annaler, p. 164-65.

    14 Scriptores Minores, vol. 2 (note 11 above), p. 35.

    15 The Ryd Annals give the date as 1150. See Danmarks Middelalderiige Annaler, p. 165. J. France, p. 37-8 (note 1 above), explains how the foundation of a Cistercian abbey was a complex process that could take place in stages over several years, and so a number of different dates could be given, according to what phase of foundation was being highlighted.

    16 J. France, p. 31. Also Ortved (note 1 above), vol. 2, p. 141.

    17 B. P. McGuire, The Cistercians in Denmark (note 1 above), p. 40.

    18 J. France (note 1 above), p. 31, points to a decision by the council of Chalcedon. Early Cistercian legislation notes that the foundation of Cîteaux was only made with the consent of the bishop of Châtillon. See C. Waddell (note 5 above), p. 180, De exordio cisterciensis cenobii, ch. 2 of the Exordium Cistercii.

    19 J. France, The Cistercians in Scandinavia, p. 34. For the role of Theodewin, see the more detailed article by J. France, “The Coming of the Cistercians to Scandinavia- ad extents et barbaras regions”, Cîteaux. Commentarii Cistercienses, 48, 1997, p. 5-15.

    20 The story is contained in the Exordium magnum cisterciense (note g above) dist 3, ch. 27, p. 210-12. It is also printed in the Scriptores minores II (note 11 above) p. 430-33.

    21 T. Nyberg (note 1 above), p. 161-63.

    22 B. P. McGuire, “Why Scandinavia? Bernard, Eskil and Cistercian Expansion in the North 1140-80”, in Goad and Nail. Studies in Medieval Cistercian History 10, E. R. Elder (ed.), Kalamazoo, 1985, p. 251-82.

    23 T. Nyberg (note 1 above), p. 125: “The Christians in central Östergötland around the episcopal see of Linköping... may have felt as though they were living on islands amidst non-Christians...”

    24 Scriptores minores, p. 178-79 and 186-89.

    25 B. P. McGuire, Cistercians in Denmark, p. 140.

    26 Diplomatarium Danicum 1. Raekke, 3 Bind, nr. 163. See the Danish translation in Danmarks Riges Breve.

    27 Ibid.: Huius spei gratia religiosos omnes intima cordis devotione veneramur, prelibatos tarnen quasi magis domesticos et proprios tot affectu specialius amplectimur.

    28 See P. McGuire, Friendship and Community. The Monastic Experience 350-1250, Kalamazoo, 1988, esp. ch. 6.

    29 “Bernard and Malachy Reconsidered: Friendship or Confraternity?”, in McGuire, The Difficult Saint. Bernard of Clairvaux and his Tradition, Kalamazoo, 1991, p. 75-106.

    30 Contained in Diplomatarium Danicum, Række 1, Bind 2, nr. 114.

    31 Monasticism in North-West Europe (note 1 above), p. 247.

    32 As in Aksel E. Christensen (note 2 above).

    33 Dist. 4, cap. 28, p. 258 (note 9 above): ...petente religiosa femina, regina Sueciae, conventum fratrum ad partes illas direxit.
    There has been general consensus among scholars that the Swedish queen was Ulfhild.

    34 J. France (note 1 above), p. 29. The Narratiuncula de fundatione monasterii Vitaescholae is printed in Scriptores Minores 2 (note 11 above) p. 138-41.

    35 Scriptores minores 2, p. 138:...consilio cuiusdam potentis viri depravata... »

    36 Ibid.: «ad mitigandam sibi omnipotentis dei iram abbatem abeuntem et monachos per supplicantes nuncios revocavit eisque Varnhem. »

    37 Ibid., p. 139: Et ecce mulieribus in claustro saltantibus domus eiusdem sacerdotis et uestimenta mulierum ibi deposita et omnia, que in domo erant, combusta sunt. Tandem denique regina per nuncium suum abbati Henrico precepit, ut domum magnum quandam, in qua abbas ipse libros missales scribere solebat, destruere et ad locum alium, quo ipsa mandaverat, transferri faceret.

    38 Ibid., p. 141: «E quibus plures et meliores ad locum Varnhem redierunt, unde exierant. »

    39 Scriptores minores 2, p. 173-75.

    40 Such as the distinguished monastic scholar J. Leclercq. See his La femme et les femmes dans l’oeuvre de saint Bernard, Paris, Téqui, 1982.

    41 See B. P. McGuire, «The Cistercians and the Transformation of Monastic Friendships,» reprinted in Friendship and Faith: Cistercian Men, Women, and their Stories, Aldershot, Eng., 2002.

    42 «Godsgaver, Calumniae og retsantropologi,” in Peter Carelli, Lars Hermanson and Hanne Sanders, red., Ett Annat 1100-tab Individ, kollektiv och kulturella monster i medeltidens Danmark, edd. P. Carelli, L. Hermanson, H. Sanders, Göteborg, 2004, p. 143-80.

    43 As in L. Hermanson, “Makten, individen och kollektivet,” in Ett Annat 1100-tal, p. 61-99.

    44 Könige, Fürsten und Klöster, Frankfurt, 1992.

    45 Monasticism in North-West Europe (note 1 above), p. 131.

    46 The so-called «Vita gunneri episcopi vibergensis» is printed in Scriptores minores 2, p. 265-77. For an interpretation, see McGuire, “Monastic and Episcopal Biography in the Thirteenth Century: The Danish Cistercian Account of Bishop Gunner ofViborg”, Analecta Cisterciensia, 39, 1983, p. 195-230.

    Auteur

    • Brian Patrick McGuire

      Université de Roskilde

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    1 For background, see B. P. McGuire, The Cistercians in Denmark, Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications, 1982, and J. France, The Cistercians in Scandinavia, Kalamazoo, 1992, esp. p. 27-42 for Sweden. The Danish Roman Catholic priest E. Ortved’s Cistercieordenen og dens Klostre i Norden, especially Vol. 2, Sveriges Klostre, Copenhagen, 1933, is still useful. In what follows here I am especially dependent on T. Nyberg’s recent synthesis, Monasticism in North-Western Europe, 800-1200, Aldershot, Eng., 2000.

    2 As in A. E. Christensen’s question in his segment of Danmarks historie. Bind 1: Tiden indtil 1340, Copenhagen, 1977, p. 318: Er det da muligt at finde mere konkrete motiver ved siden af fromhed end ønsket om, at velvillige kirke og klostermaend udgjorde en moralsk stiøtte for kongemagten? (“Is it then possible to find more concrete motives besides piety than the desire that well-intentioned churchmen and monastics provided moral support for royal power?”).

    3 For Vreta, see T. Nyberg (note 1 above), p. 81-83. For Denmark in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, see Nyberg’s chapters four and five.

    4 The foundation charter is contained in Diplomatarium Danicum Række 1, vol. 2, nr. 64. For background, T. Nyberg, p. 104-109.

    5 See the Summa cartae caritatis, the Cistercian constitution from the twelfth century, section 8, De construendis abbatiis, with its strict requirements not only for personnel but also for the liturgical books to be brought by the monks and the buildings which were supposed to be completed before the monks even arrived: Narrative and Legislative Texts from Early Cîteaux, C. Waddell (ed.), Cîteaux-Commentarii cistercienses, 1999, p. 187.

    6 See J. France (note 1 above), p. 2-3, for a number of these references.

    7 For a review of the central Danish sources, see B. P. McGuire (note 1 above), p. 16-21.

    8 This historian is Michael Casey, monk of the Trappist-Cistercian abbey of Tarrawarra in Australia. He is one of the outstanding experts on Cistercian history and spirituality, and I have heard him use the phrase in a 1990 plenary lecture at the Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in connection with the 900th anniversary of the birth of Bernard of Clairvaux.

    9 Exordium magnum cisterciense sive narratio de initio cisterciensis ordinis, Bruno Griesser (ed.), Rome, Editiones Cistercienses, 1961.

    10 Note that the use of the terms “Sweden” and “Denmark” for the twelfth century is an anachronism. In writing about the period, we assume on the basis of what later happened that Sweden was a kingdom, while in actuality the areas of Västergötland, Östergötland and Mälarn were very much separate. It is only after the end of the twelfth century that the geographical names correspond to actual kingdoms.

    11 The Latin original is to be found in Scriptores Minores Historiae Danicae Medii Aevi, vol. 2, M. Cl. Gertz (ed.), Copenhagen, 1922 and 1970, p. 158-92. For background, see B. P. McGuire, Conflict and Continuity at Øm Abbey, Copenhagen, 1976.

    12 Danmarks Middelalderlige Annaler, E. Kroman (ed.), Copenhagen, 1980, p. 10.

    13 Danmarks Middelalderlige Annaler, p. 164-65.

    14 Scriptores Minores, vol. 2 (note 11 above), p. 35.

    15 The Ryd Annals give the date as 1150. See Danmarks Middelalderiige Annaler, p. 165. J. France, p. 37-8 (note 1 above), explains how the foundation of a Cistercian abbey was a complex process that could take place in stages over several years, and so a number of different dates could be given, according to what phase of foundation was being highlighted.

    16 J. France, p. 31. Also Ortved (note 1 above), vol. 2, p. 141.

    17 B. P. McGuire, The Cistercians in Denmark (note 1 above), p. 40.

    18 J. France (note 1 above), p. 31, points to a decision by the council of Chalcedon. Early Cistercian legislation notes that the foundation of Cîteaux was only made with the consent of the bishop of Châtillon. See C. Waddell (note 5 above), p. 180, De exordio cisterciensis cenobii, ch. 2 of the Exordium Cistercii.

    19 J. France, The Cistercians in Scandinavia, p. 34. For the role of Theodewin, see the more detailed article by J. France, “The Coming of the Cistercians to Scandinavia- ad extents et barbaras regions”, Cîteaux. Commentarii Cistercienses, 48, 1997, p. 5-15.

    20 The story is contained in the Exordium magnum cisterciense (note g above) dist 3, ch. 27, p. 210-12. It is also printed in the Scriptores minores II (note 11 above) p. 430-33.

    21 T. Nyberg (note 1 above), p. 161-63.

    22 B. P. McGuire, “Why Scandinavia? Bernard, Eskil and Cistercian Expansion in the North 1140-80”, in Goad and Nail. Studies in Medieval Cistercian History 10, E. R. Elder (ed.), Kalamazoo, 1985, p. 251-82.

    23 T. Nyberg (note 1 above), p. 125: “The Christians in central Östergötland around the episcopal see of Linköping... may have felt as though they were living on islands amidst non-Christians...”

    24 Scriptores minores, p. 178-79 and 186-89.

    25 B. P. McGuire, Cistercians in Denmark, p. 140.

    26 Diplomatarium Danicum 1. Raekke, 3 Bind, nr. 163. See the Danish translation in Danmarks Riges Breve.

    27 Ibid.: Huius spei gratia religiosos omnes intima cordis devotione veneramur, prelibatos tarnen quasi magis domesticos et proprios tot affectu specialius amplectimur.

    28 See P. McGuire, Friendship and Community. The Monastic Experience 350-1250, Kalamazoo, 1988, esp. ch. 6.

    29 “Bernard and Malachy Reconsidered: Friendship or Confraternity?”, in McGuire, The Difficult Saint. Bernard of Clairvaux and his Tradition, Kalamazoo, 1991, p. 75-106.

    30 Contained in Diplomatarium Danicum, Række 1, Bind 2, nr. 114.

    31 Monasticism in North-West Europe (note 1 above), p. 247.

    32 As in Aksel E. Christensen (note 2 above).

    33 Dist. 4, cap. 28, p. 258 (note 9 above): ...petente religiosa femina, regina Sueciae, conventum fratrum ad partes illas direxit.
    There has been general consensus among scholars that the Swedish queen was Ulfhild.

    34 J. France (note 1 above), p. 29. The Narratiuncula de fundatione monasterii Vitaescholae is printed in Scriptores Minores 2 (note 11 above) p. 138-41.

    35 Scriptores minores 2, p. 138:...consilio cuiusdam potentis viri depravata... »

    36 Ibid.: «ad mitigandam sibi omnipotentis dei iram abbatem abeuntem et monachos per supplicantes nuncios revocavit eisque Varnhem. »

    37 Ibid., p. 139: Et ecce mulieribus in claustro saltantibus domus eiusdem sacerdotis et uestimenta mulierum ibi deposita et omnia, que in domo erant, combusta sunt. Tandem denique regina per nuncium suum abbati Henrico precepit, ut domum magnum quandam, in qua abbas ipse libros missales scribere solebat, destruere et ad locum alium, quo ipsa mandaverat, transferri faceret.

    38 Ibid., p. 141: «E quibus plures et meliores ad locum Varnhem redierunt, unde exierant. »

    39 Scriptores minores 2, p. 173-75.

    40 Such as the distinguished monastic scholar J. Leclercq. See his La femme et les femmes dans l’oeuvre de saint Bernard, Paris, Téqui, 1982.

    41 See B. P. McGuire, «The Cistercians and the Transformation of Monastic Friendships,» reprinted in Friendship and Faith: Cistercian Men, Women, and their Stories, Aldershot, Eng., 2002.

    42 «Godsgaver, Calumniae og retsantropologi,” in Peter Carelli, Lars Hermanson and Hanne Sanders, red., Ett Annat 1100-tab Individ, kollektiv och kulturella monster i medeltidens Danmark, edd. P. Carelli, L. Hermanson, H. Sanders, Göteborg, 2004, p. 143-80.

    43 As in L. Hermanson, “Makten, individen och kollektivet,” in Ett Annat 1100-tal, p. 61-99.

    44 Könige, Fürsten und Klöster, Frankfurt, 1992.

    45 Monasticism in North-West Europe (note 1 above), p. 131.

    46 The so-called «Vita gunneri episcopi vibergensis» is printed in Scriptores minores 2, p. 265-77. For an interpretation, see McGuire, “Monastic and Episcopal Biography in the Thirteenth Century: The Danish Cistercian Account of Bishop Gunner ofViborg”, Analecta Cisterciensia, 39, 1983, p. 195-230.

    Itinéraires du savoir de l’Italie à la Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle)

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    McGuire, B. P. (2009). Cistercian Origins in Denmark and Sweden: the Twelfth Century Founders. In C. Péneau (éd.), Itinéraires du savoir de l’Italie à la Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle). Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.psorbonne.11523
    McGuire, Brian Patrick. « Cistercian Origins in Denmark and Sweden: The Twelfth Century Founders ». In Itinéraires Du Savoir De l’Italie à La Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle), édité par Corinne Péneau. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2009. doi:10.4000/books.psorbonne.11523.
    McGuire, Brian Patrick. « Cistercian Origins in Denmark and Sweden: The Twelfth Century Founders ». Itinéraires Du Savoir De l’Italie à La Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle), édité par Corinne Péneau, Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2009, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.psorbonne.11523.

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    Péneau, C. (éd.). (2009). Itinéraires du savoir de l’Italie à la Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle). Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.psorbonne.11460
    Péneau, Corinne, éd. Itinéraires du savoir de l’Italie à la Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle). Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2009. doi:10.4000/books.psorbonne.11460.
    Péneau, Corinne, éditeur. Itinéraires du savoir de l’Italie à la Scandinavie (Xe-XVIe siècle). Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2009, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.psorbonne.11460.
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