The large number of rapidly developing Cistercian foundations all over the European continent indicated the universal appeal of Cistercian ideals, affecting the whole of contemporary society; yet, among the vocations, a surprisingly large number came from the intellectual elite. During the early years of Clairvaux, the famous school of Châlons was almost emptied because students, together with their professors, followed the call of the young Bernard. Similar cases repeatedly occurred wherever the Abbot happened to be preaching, particularly in Reims, Liège and Paris. According to Ernaldus, one of the first biographers of the Saint, Clairvaux was the monastery where men of learning, masters of rhetoric and philosophy, studied the theory of
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divine virtues. The reason why the young scholastic generation preferred the Cistercians can scarcely be attributed to St. Bernard's impressive personality alone, since many spent their lives in other monasteries than Clairvaux. The decisive factor in the vocation of those intellectuals must have been the novelty of Cistercian spirituality, a highly original system of mystical theology, a school of the love of God, inaugurated and developed by St. Bernard.
In his widely circulated and famous sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, in his treatises and letters, the Saint presented a satisfactory solution of a much discussed problem, the irnportance of love in human life. Since the middle of the eleventh century, there was behind the increasingly vigorous intellectual movements a definite tendency toward emotionalism, with a specific emphasis on the motive of love. However, since neither the adequate form of expression nor its moral imputability was yet clarified, the problem caused considerable confusion in public opinion as well as among men of literature and theology. The extremists were represented by two heretical movements. The Manicheistic doctrine of the Albigensians maintained that the flesh and carnal desires, consequently love and marriage, are works of evil, therefore altogether detestable. On the other side, the protagonists of a revolutionary new poetry, the troubadours, elevated the woman upon a pedestal, a move unparalleled in Christian traditions, and in their worship of femininity, ignored the principles of Christian morality. The ruling Cluniac spirituality, unprepared and unable to match the problem, took its stand on the negative side. Above the portals of their lavishly decorated churches appeared scenes of the last judgment with horrendous punishments for those who sinned in sensuality. Among the symbolic figures there frequently stood a skillfully carved likeness of a woman, La femme aux Serpents, her bodv covered with frogs and snakes. At the same time, the Cluniac Bernard of Morlais, published his great metrical composition, De Contemptu Mundi, which contained the darkest
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and most pessimistic presentation of love and womanhood in medieval literature.
St. Bernard, with the heart of a troubadour himself, placed the motive of love in the center of his mystical theology, teaching that affectionate love of God was the only way of approaching the final goal of Christian perfection, the union of the human soul with its Creator. Although the Cistercians were more strict than the Cluniacs in keeping women away from the neighborhood of their monasteries, the contemporary admiration of womanhood found its most sublime and delicate form in a devotion to the Blessed Virgin as Queen of Heaven. Her medieval cult flourished wherever Cistercians lived and always found inspiration in the deeply poetical writings of St. Bernard. The intellectual elite of the century understood, admired and eagerly followed St. Bernard in his way of perfection, thus starting an unbroken succession of great mystics, whose influence greatly affected Christian spirituality for centuries to come.
http://www.monksonline.org/White-Monks/ch4.htm
Unless I mis-read, it would appear that what was once commonly moral in Christianity, has now become commonly forgotten.
I also seem to sense hints of a more Eastern Philiosphy in these Christian beliefs. Christian perfection, the union of the human soul with its Creator. This sounds a lot like nirvanna.
I find the correlation interesting, especialy since, to my understanding, that Christian thoughts state that religion outside of their own is inncorrect, and yet some of the major concepts will match up rather nicely.
What are your thoughts on the fact that a group has produced such radical changes against what they normaly though?
and
What are your thoughts on the correlation of Christianity to that of other thoughts which they claim to not share?
