Narratives of a New Order
Cistercian Historical Writing in England, 1150-1220
By (author) Elizabeth Freeman
The origins of the Cistercian monastic order are currently under intense scrutiny and revision, as scholars identify how the written word was used to ‘invent’ a unified corporate identity. Here Elizabeth Freeman examines the classic genre for inventing a past – the history, chronicle, and annal – and argues that historical narratives of the English Cistercians helped define the characteristics of both the new Cistercian monastic order and also the new orders of twelfth- and thirteenth-century England. She shows how Aelred of Rievaulx’s Relatio de standardo and Genealogia regum Anglorum articulated new senses of Englishness, and demonstrates through attention to library holdings that this focus on national self-definition continued throughout the twelfth century. The Fundacio abbathie de Kyrkestall shifts focus to local history and exploits Cistercian tropes of land-use in order to resolve the communal insecurity that characterised the Cistercians in around 1200. The Narratione de fundatione Fontanis monasterii features another method of reconciling the nostalgic quest for continuity with the intellectual recognition of change – it separates historical ‘fact’ from ‘meaning’ and imbues events with rich allegorical significance. Finally, Ralph of Coggeshall’s Chronicon Anglicanum indicates the multiple strategies Cistercian historians employed in order to turn the disparate and contradictory events of the past into a comprehensible and meaningful narrative.
- By (author) Elizabeth Freeman
Other Titles in this Series
Devotional Culture in Late Medieval England and Europe
Diverse Imaginations of Christ's Life
Volume 31
The Power of Words in Late Medieval Devotional and Mystical Writing
Essays in Honour of Denis Renevey
Volume 46
Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude
Essays on Cistercians, Art and Architecture in Honour of Peter Fergusson
Volume 11
Crusading in Frankish Greece
A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204-1282
Volume 22
The Middle English Life of Christ
Academic Discourse, Translation, and Vernacular Theology
Volume 30
‘God Wants It!’
The Ideology of Martyrdom in the Hebrew Crusade Chronicles and its Jewish and Christian Background
Volume 6
Inwardness, Individualization, and Religious Agency in the Late Medieval Low Countries
Studies in The 'Devotio Moderna' and its Contexts
Volume 43
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