Medieval Cistercians and their Social Environment: The Case of Hungary

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PRE

ANALECTA CISTERCIENSIA PERIODICUM SEMESTRE

B-342

SUMMARIUM B. W. O'DWYER , The Crisis in the Cistercian Monasteries in Ireland in the Early Thirteenth Century ( )

3

The Book of Experience : Alan of Lille's Use of the Classical Rhetorical Topos in his Pastoral Writings

113

II

G. R. EVANS ,

Croissance et adaptation chez les Cisterciens au treizième siècle Les débuts du Collège des Bernardins de Paris

P. DAUTREY ,

. 122

N. HÄRING , Alan of Lille's De Fide Catholica or Contra Haereticos N. HÄRING , Two Theological Poems Probably Composed by Alan of Lille . L. J. LEKAI, Medieval Cistercians and their Social Environment . The Case of

216 238

Hungary

251

Recensiones

281

Index Generalis Voluminum

ANNUS XXXII

21-32

289

( 1965-1976 )

FASC . 1-2-

- 1976 NOSTR MATER CISTERCIM

The

University

of Michigan Periodical

EDITIONES CISTERCIENSES ( 1-00153 ) ROMA , PIAZZA DEL TEMPIO DI DIANA ,

JAN .- DEC .

14

FEB

Reading

81978

Room

ANALECTA CISTERCIENSIA

ANNUS XXXII

1

1976

NOSTA MATER STERCNM

EDITIONES CISTERCIENSES ( I -00153 ) ROMA , PIAZZA DEL TEMPIO DI DIANA ,

14

MEDIEVAL CISTERCIANS AND THEIR SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT THE CASE OF HUNGARY by Louis

J.

LEKAI

Introduction Great ideas of history are like the seeds of the Gospel parable . They grow and bring fruit on fertile soil , but , falling on the wayside , they fail to sprout or they wither before the time of harvest .

The Cistercian movement appeared on the monastic scene of the early twelfth century as a happy combination of the previous century's valuable reforming ideas . However , the success or failure of individual abbeys was conditioned by the social structure and the religious and intellectual levels of their surroundings . The most congenial welcome awaited them in France and generally in Western Europe . This included England

and the Low Countries

and to a lesser degree Elbe , the northern part of the Iberian peninsula , Switzerland , and Italy as far south as Rome . A glance at the statistics may convince even the most skeptical histo rian : before the Reformation the Order had about 700 houses for men , but over 500 of these were concentrated within the above delienated area . The balance of less than 200 monasteries was scattered in Ireland , Scotland , Scandinavia , the Baltic provinces , eastern Germany , Poland , and Hungary . Needless to say , the attempts to settle Cistercians in the Crusader States or within the Latin Empire had failed long before the end of the Middle Ages . ,

the Rhineland

,

,

Denmark , Germany between the Rhine and the

My thesis is this : although the preferred site of

a Cistercian abbey place monastery , was a > .

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Louis

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Lekai

While kings , titled nobility , and the highest ranking hierarchy donated the indispensable land for foundations , those who flocked to the monasteries rarely belonged to the aristocracy . The numbers of choir monks were swelled by people of education , either ecclesiastics or members of the bougeoisie , while the even greater numbers of lay -brothers were recruited from the free peasantry . Fortunately , the beginnings of the Order coincided with an accelerated urbanization and the breakup of manorialism in Western Europe ; one explains the large number of choir - monk vocations , the other the influx of thousands of lay -brothers .

with its secular neighborhood

.

While such social conditions prevailed in the West , in Eastern Europe the Cistercians found generous patrons , but the bourgeoisie was relatively insignificant and the serfs lacked the freedom and mobility of the western peasant class . The result was a chronic and widespread vocational crisis which prevented the natural growth and development of monastic communities . Elsewhere in the peripheries of Christian Europe inveterate religious traditions , adverse climatic conditions , or the militant hostility of still pagan tribes accounted for the frustrated expectations of pioneering Cistercians . Whether the young Cistercian choir-monks in Western Europe were motivated by the personal magnetism of such leaders as Bernard of Clairvaux or Aelred of Rievaulx , by the high ascetic standards of a given community , or by the prevailing Bernardine school of mysticism , are intriguing questions . Whatever the answer may be in individual cases , the immense popularity of the Order among the bourgeoisie remains incontrovertible . The account for lay -brother vocations is less involved . The tight framework of the antiquated manorialism was breaking apart . Under the pressure of a relative overpopulation , large segments of the agrarian workers gained a considerable measure of freedom and mobility . These were the lowly folks who made up the bulk of the crusading armies , started the general eastward migration , and volunteered to populate the reconquered Spain . Some of them drifted into the growing cities , but others , perhaps tens of thousands , chose to join Cistercian communities as lay - brothers . Here they found security , an honorable state in life and much better living conditions than those of their struggling kinfolks outside the monastic estates . These brothers , very often , just before entering the monastic community , donated their modest properties to the abbey in exchange for admission for themselves or their sons , and lifetime pensions for the rest of their families 3. 3 See for many examples A. Clergeac Champion , 1905 ) .

,

Cartulaire de l'abbaye

de Gimont ( Paris :

Medieval Cistercians and their Social Environment

This

does not

253

imply that Cistercians were not welcomed with enthu

siasm and generosity elsewhere , and does not belittle the sincere piety Italy . , Poland , Hungary , and Southern princes , In fact few in the West could match the size of donations Polish bestowed on Cistercians , or the cordiality with which the Order was received in the court of King Béla III in Hungary . In all these countries , however , certain conditions prevented the normal growth and develop

of masses of people in Ireland

ment of Cistercian establishments . In Scotland , Norway and Sweden the chief factors which set a limit to Cistercian expansion were the scant population and inclement climate . In Ireland , most Cistercian foun dations were sooner or later absorbed and thoroughly altered by the tradition - bound native Celtic monasticism . Only those few houses which were effectively controlled by their English father -abbots remained under the discipline of the Order *.

Something similar must have happened in Southern Italy . The Nor man and later Hohenstaufen rulers were as generous toward Cistercians as their northern counterparts . The eastern or Byzantine influences , ho wever , which dominated local monastic spirituality proved to be too strong and deep - rooted to be replaced by the ideas of the White Monks . They arrived as strangers and never seemed to be fully acclimatized to their new surroundings . The twelfth century was not yet over when the Cistercian abbot of Corazzo , Joachim of Fiore ( 1145-1202 ) , broke away from the Order and , expecting a new era in the history of salvation , initiated a congregation of his own 5. and 1232 the General Chapter was forced to ponder the necessity of closing six poor and depopulated Italian houses " . Meanwhile , the triumphant Franciscan movement turned out to be another serious challenge to Cistercian establishments every where in the country . Saint Francis appealed to his fellow -Italians with a congeniality Cistercians could never match . Monastic houses became clearly the losers in the competition for vocations .

But this was not all . Between

1191

Another peculiar case was that of the Cistercian missionaries inching eastward along the Baltic coast from Pomerania to Prussia , Kurland and Livonia . They lived a life that even Saint Bernard's phantasy could hardly have visualized . Surrounded by shifty pagan tribes , they locked themselves into heavily fortified abbeys , protected by orders of knights 4 J. A. Watt , The Church and the Two Nations in Medieval Ireland ( Cambridge : The University Press , 1970 ) , pp . 85-107 . 5 See the latest on Joachim in Dictionnaire de spiritualité , ed . M. Viller et al . (Paris : Beauchesne , 1974 ) , VIII , 1179-1201 , by Cyprien Baraut . These were San Sebastiano in Rome ( 1191 ) , Falera , San Giusto , San Martino del Monte and Sala ( all in difficulties in 1199 ) , and finally Roccamadore ( 1232 ) . See for details the statutes of the corresponding years in Statuta Capitulorum Genera lium Ordinis Cisterciensis , ed . J.-M. Canivez ( Louvain : Revue d'Histoire Ecclésias tique , 1933-1941 ) , I - II . Henceforth : Statuta .

Louis

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organized by the monks for a more secure and effective penetration of a militantly hostile environment ' . These abbeys depended for gene rations on vocations recruited through their German mother -abbeys .

In both

Poland and Hungary , social and economic conditions were markedly different from those of their western neighbors . This circum stance posed particular difficulties to Cistercian abbeys in their search for a sufficient number of native vocations . Both countries featured vast plains and immense forests , inhabited by a sparse population . Land was plentiful and given with liberality to the newcomers , but the power ful families of landed nobility in both countries were reluctant to permit their own serfs to join the monks as lay - brothers . Without hem , the new monastic colonies were unable to exploit their lands in the manner demanded by Cistercian legislation . They were forced to live on rents , tithes , taxes , and a variety of seigneurial monopolies . The source of choir- monk vocations in the West was the urban mid dle-class . It was , until the fourteenth century , largely missing in Poland and Hungary . Those few cities which had existed at the time of the first Cistercian foundations were royal or episcopal residences , seats of lay or ecclesiastical administration , and not the busy centers of rich and educated merchants or tradesmen . Moreover , many of the monastic sites in both countries came close to the Cistercian ideal of a « desert » . This might have helped the monks to enjoy an undisturbed contempla tion , but certainly hindered them in finding native vocations .

Finally , both Poland and Hungary , although short in prosperous bourgeoisie , had a populous class of landed nobility . If , in these countries , the western - style law of inheritance along the lines of primo

geniture had prevailed , the younger sons could have been attracted to monastic life . This , however , was not the case . Throughout the Middle Ages , in both Poland and Hungary , every male child of a noble family was entitled to a portion of the father's estate . Thus there was no incen tive for the boys to join monasteries , even if they could become abbots at an early age 8.

For the crusading movement in general see William Urban , The Baltic Cru Kalb : Northern Illinois University Press , 1975 ) , and for the Cistercian sponsored knights , Friedrich Benninghoven , Der Orden der Schwertbrüder (Co 7

sade (De

logne : Böhlau Verlag , 1965 ) .

8 For Hungary , see the last non - Marxian standard work by two leading histo rians , B. Hóman and Gy . Szekfü , Magyar Történet , 3rd ed . ( Budapest : Egyetemi Nyomda , 1935 ) , in which the first and part of the second volume by Hóman deals with the medieval period . Concerning Poland I relied on the first volume of W. F. Reddaway et al ., The Cambridge History of Poland ( Cambridge : The University Press , 1950 ) . On the problem of Polish vocations see Jerzy Kloczowski , « Les cister ciens en Pologne du XIIe et XIII e siècles , » Cîteaux , 21 ( 1970 ) , 111-134 .

Medieval Cistercians and their Social Environment

255

The conditions of twelfth -century Hungary were similar to those in Poland . However , royal power was more conspicuous along the Da nube and a greater degree of political stability prevailed . The country was one of the largest in Europe ( about 125,000 square miles ) , its soil was fertile , its climate favorable . But its population , even as late as 1200 , counted only about two million souls . The originally complex lay society tended to be divided into two basically differentiated segments : the numerous and powerful nobility and the unfree serfs . A chronic shortage of labor reduced the value of land without working hands . For the same reason , there was a powerful trend to limit the movements of the servile bulk of rural population ' . The immigration policies of Hungary were as generous as those of Poland . Foreign religious were particularly welcome . Ecclesiastical administration under King Stephen I ( 1001-1038 ) was entrusted largely to German and Italian Benedictines . At the time of the initial Cistercian expansion , the country had already been saturated by some eighty Be nedictine abbeys . Together with the first Cistercians , the country was also invaded by Premonstratensians who , since they were willing to par ticipate in missionary and pastoral work , outdistanced by far the Cister cians . By 1320 the Premonstratensians Cistercians had only eighteen 10.

possessed

thirty- nine houses . The

of the first Cistercian abbey in Hungary was the mother Heiligenkreuz near Vienna . Heiligenkreuz was populated directly from the French Morimond in 1135. It was soon the most vi gorous community in the country . Between 1138 and 1327 it founded seven daughter - abbeys . The Hungarian Cikádor was the third of them , built near the right bank of the lower Danube in 1142 and adequately endowed by King Géza II " . Its personnel was probably composed of

The Austrian

9 On the social and economic conditions of Hungary under Béla III see Hóman and Szekfü , op . cit ., I , 395-400 . 10 See for the figures concerning the Benedictines and Premonstratensians Elemér Mályusz , Egyházi társadalom a középkori Magyarországon ( Budapest : Aka démiai Kiadó , 1971 ) , pp . 212-215 , an excellent monograph by a leading historian of the older generation . By earlier authors the number of Cistercian abbeys was grossly exaggerated . Theofil Heimb , Notitia historica de ortu et progressu abbatiae sacri ordinis Cisterciensis B. M. V. ad Gotthardum dictae ( Vienna , 1767 ) , pp . 149 171 , enumerated 44 foundations . The more scholarly Damian Fuxhoffer ( as augmen ted and correted by Maur Czinár ) , Monasteriologia regni Hungariae ( Vienna , 1869 ) , , 75-128 , listed 33 abbeys . The correct number was established by the already mentioned Janauschek , who named only 18 foundations . The same 18 abbeys ( and no more ) occur also among the records of the Cistercian General Chapter , pub lished in Statuta . The inflated numbers resulted from three causes : in medieval do cuments the same abbeys are often referred to by a variety of names ; the con struction or Cistercian takeover of many abbeys were often merely planned but not executed ; several abbeys possessed urban houses , which were often mistaken for independent priories . >> 11 Remig Békefi , A cikádori apátság története ( Pécs , 1894 ) , pp . 28-36 .

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older French and younger Austrian monks . It survived , but was unable to grow or expand . The records of the General Chapter do not mention it until 1193 , when the presence of its abbot was noted 2" . After the inconsequential beginnings of Cikádor , no attempt was made to sponsor another Cistercian foundation for nearly forty years . The renewed interest in Cistercians was a characteristic feature of the reign of King Béla III ( 1172-1196 ) . His foreign policy was French oriented , sealed by his two marriages . The first was to Agnes of Châtillon , princess of Antioch . The second , in 1186 , was to Margaret Capet , sister of King Philip Augustus of France and widow of Prince Henry , the second son of Henry II of England . The patronage of Cistercians on a grand scale was just another expression of Béla's admiration for French civilization . Between 1179 and 1194 , new foundations followed in quick succession . Four were made directly from France : from Clairvaux and its daughters , Trois - Fontaines and Acey . One was populated again from Heiligenkreuz . As early as 1190 , the Hungarian Pilis ( founded in 1184 ) was able to found its first daughter , Pásztó ".

The co-ordination of royal and Cistercian efforts necessitated the visit of Peter , abbot of Cîteaux ( 1180-1184 ) at the Hungarian court in 1183. The result was the issuance of a document in which Béla guaranteed the same freedoms and privileges which the Order enjoyed in France and promised to facilitate the communication between the newly founded abbeys and their faraway mother -houses 14. The example of the king found several imitators among the members

of the nobility . With royal approval and papal blessing , Bán Dominic

Bors obtained a dispensation from his vow to join a crusade , and the permission to sponsor instead the foundation of a Cistercian abbey . In 1194 , Dominic turned to Abbot Marquard of Heiligenkreuz with such a proposal

,

offering

( slaves) and

8

villages ,

100

oxen ,

50

cows ,

1000 sheep , 10

servants

for the construction of a new abbey . Heiligenkreuz accepted the invitation . In 1197 , the Austrian monks , under the leadership of Abbot Conrad ( who was still alive 300 silver marks as his contribution

I

12 Statuta , , 1193 ( 55 ) . Here and in all subsequent references to the same work the figures in parenthesis indicate the numbered paragraphs under the year in question . 13 According to Janauschek , the dates of all 18 foundations in chronological order are the following : Cikádor ( 1142 ) , Egres ( 1179 ) , Zirc ( 1182 ) , Saint Gotthard ( 1184 ) , Pilis ( 1184 ) , Pásztó ( 1190 ) , Borsmonostor ( 1194 ) , Kerc ( 1202 ) , Toplica ( 1205 ) , Holy Cross ( 1214 ) , Pornó ( 1219 ) , Szepes ( 1223 ) , Bélháromkut ( 1232 ) , Vallis Honesta ( 1232 ) , Bélakut ( 1234 ) , Ercsi ( 1235 ) , Abraham ( 1263 ) , Island of St. James , later moved to Zagreb ( 1272 ) . See for the line of affiliations the appended chart ( p . 280 ) . For their geographic localtion see the appended map ( p . 278 ) . 14 Remig Békefi , A pásztói apátság története ( Budapest , 1898 ) , , 30 .

I

Medieval Cistercians and their Social Environment

in

) , took possession of Borsmonostor border close to the city of Köszeg 15. 1222

257

not far from the Austrian

,

,

of

The donation of landless servants or slaves was a clear indication the lack of sufficient lay - brothers . Such donation or purchase of slaves

occurred at a number of other occasions , at Borsmonostor and else where 16. In 1224 , a nobleman named Etel , donated to Borsmonostor two slave families . In 1229 , King Andrew II gave to the same abbey three families of slaves . In 1236 , a member of the Bors family granted some other people of the same condition . In 1237 , Count Csák , who was to be buried in the abbey , presented a slave and his son to the monks for the specific purpose of caring for his grave . He stipulated that his duty was to be taken over by the son after the death of his father 17.

,

of

,

,

in

.

a

in

of

18.

In 1269 , Abbot Matthew of the Croatian Toplica ( Topusko ) bought twelve slaves for seventeen marks from a nobleman , Farkas de Colchoch ( Kolcsák ) . This man later donated another twelve slaves to the same abbey