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- Title
The Knightly Brothers of Bernard of Clairvaux and the Twelfth‐Century Cistercian Lay Monk*.
- Authors
Millan‐Cole, Joseph
- Abstract
Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (r. 1115–1153) was a prominent twelfth‐century religious leader whose knightly family collectively converted to monastic life with him in adulthood around 1113. Following Clairvaux's foundation in 1115, Bernard's brothers held roles of significant estate seniority despite their own professional limitations as newly converted and apparently illiterate knights. This study discusses their professional backgrounds and contexts as "lay monks" or monachi laici, converts who possessed no prior church grade or formally recognised Latin competence. The careers of Bernard's brothers and other Benedictines across the eleventh to early thirteenth centuries illuminate a number of the ways in which secular converts could contribute to their abbeys as culturally mixed and prosperous religious estate communities.
- Subjects
BERNARD of Clairvaux; BROTHERS; RELIGIOUS communities; RELIGIOUS leaders; MONASTIC life; ADULTS; ABBEYS
- Publication
Journal of Religious History, 2023, Vol 47, Issue 2, p295
- ISSN
0022-4227
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1467-9809.12941