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Carregando... Cistercians and Cluniacs: St Bernard's Apologia to Abbot William (Cistercian Fathers)de Bernard of Clairvaux
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A landmark in the 'feud' between Cîteaux and Cluny, the Apologia contains Saint Bernard's opinion on the place of graphic arts in the monastery and shows his mastery of satire. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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However, after writing "You [Cistercian:] keep [the Rule:] more strictly; he, perhaps, keeps it more reasonably" (51), Bernard turns to a satiric assault on Cluniac excess. But the excess may be primarily in Bernard's rhetoric--and, for that matter, his logic; given what he argued in the opening, how can he insist that "any vice that shows up on the surface must have its source in the heart" (61)?
A minor point: he batters the Cluniacs because of their inadequate taming of the flesh; but then he sneers at them for their elaborate dishes, helpfully offering that such dishes oppress more than repress the stomach (56). The point may well be that excessive pleasure leads to its opposite, but, given the context, we can't help but think of the Cluniac egg-eaters as punishing their flesh in their own peculiar way, by (over)filling instead of emptying the stomach.
While [a:Jean Leclercq|104640|Jean Leclercq|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s introduction wisely reminds us of the textuality of Bernard's treatise, warning us of its imperfect utility for social history, nevertheless, Bernard--and Leclercq's introduction for that matter--contain some interesting material: on eating (Peters Damian and Venerable warn that the seas and land will be denuded of animals to feed monastic appetites, although both are worried, not about animals, but about the bad effects on human abstinents (17-18)); on clothing and textiles (apparently catskins, especially imported (!) catskins, were a la mode for monastic bedspreads (60)); warfare (contra Le Goff on Yvain, Bernard speaks of arrows and spears flying in warfare(58)--also note that Bernard speaks of soldier's cloaks as suitable for kings (61),which says something about the changing status of the milites); disability ("sick" brothers, as a sign of their sickness, staggered around on with walking-sticks, so "earning" themselves better food (58)); on architecture (the beauty of a church inspires richer donations (65), a point not lost on university endowment officers!); and, most famously, interior decoration. Here we find Bernard's assault on the "ridiculous monstrosities in the cloisters": My only complaint, apart from Bernard's logic, is the shortness of this volume. Given that (at least) two Cluniac responses to Bernard survive, and given that this book is only 60 or so pages long, there's no reason the responses couldn't have been translated with this, except, of course, that this is a product of Cistercian publishers. Thanks, whited sepulchers!
Note that this work also translated in The Cistercian World. It would be nicely paired on a syllabus with the [b:Libellus de diversis ordinibus|5883772|Libellus de Diversis Ordinibus et Professionibus Qui Sunt in Aecclesia (Oxford Medieval Texts)|Giles Constable|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510PB70XGKL._SL75_.jpg|6055996]. ( )