Get select books for only $10!   SHOP NOW!

Liturgical Press
My Account
Catholic Social Teaching Faith and Justice Ecology Ethics Eucharistic Revival Parish Ministries Liturgical Ministries Preaching and Presiding Parish Leadership Seasonal Resources Worship Resources Sacramental Preparation Ritual Books Music Liturgical Theology The Liturgy of the Church Liturgy and Sacraments Liturgy in History Biblical Spirituality Old Testament Scholarship New Testament Scholarship Wisdom Commentary Little Rock Scripture Study The Saint John's Bible Ecclesiology and Ecumenism Vatican II at 60 Church and Culture Sacramental Theology Systematic Theology Theology in History Aesthetics and the Arts Prayer Liturgy of the Hours Spirituality Biography/Hagiography Daily Reflections Spiritual Direction/Counseling Give Us This Day Benedictine Spirituality Cistercian Rule of Saint Benedict and Other Rules Lectio Divina Monastic Studies Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Oblates Monasticism in History Thomas Merton Religious Life/Discipleship Give Us This Day Worship The Bible Today Cistercian Studies Quarterly Loose-Leaf Lectionary Celebrating the Eucharist Bulletins
Liturgical Press

Cistercians and Cluniacs

The Case for Cîteaux

Idung Of Prüfening; Translated, with an introduction, by Jeremiah F. O'Sullivan

Cistercians and Cluniacs
Cistercians and Cluniacs

ISBN: 9780879072339, CF033P

Details: 238 pgs, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1/2
Publication Date: 06/01/1977
Cistercian Publications
Paperback  
$29.95
Quantity    
Add to Cart
In Stock
See chart below for bulk pricing for groups.

Founded in 910 to return to the authentic monasticism of Saint Benedict, the abbey of Cluny led a revolution in the medieval Church. Wresting secular hands from control on monastic office and finances, the great burgundian monastery and its hundreds of daughter houses inspired eleventh-century churchmen to seize control of the Church from petty lords and outraged emperors. Powerful and respected, the Cluniac Order cast a long shadow over the European Church, but its very position of leadership brought prosperity into the cloister and, in its train, complacency.

The Cistercians were founded in 1098 to revive the primitive observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Having experienced the worldly dangers threatening, even embraced by, the Black Monks of Cluny, the White Monks of Cîteaux resolved to withdraw from, not to reform, the world. Their uncompromising asceticism attracted scores of young men, and soon the Cistercian Order outstripped the Cluniacs in pious prestige and personnel.

A rivalry inevitably sprang up. Cluniacs, like Idung of Prüfening, felt drawn to the more austere cistercian way of life. Some Cistercians felt attracted to the less rigorous and liturgically richer life at Cluny. Each all too frequently felt obliged to justify his departure by commenting on the shortcomings of his former monastery.

Gentle conciliatory spirits might call for charity from both White Monks and Blank and the leaders of the two great Orders might develop a deep personal friendship, but ink and acrimony continued spasmodically to flow until the Cistercians, lie their Cluniac brethren succumbed to being respectable, comfortable fixtures of the medieval landscape.

ISBN: 9780879072339, CF033P

Details: 238 pgs, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1/2
Publication Date: 06/01/1977
Cistercian Publications
© 2025, Liturgical Press. All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use