ABSTRACT
The monastic movements of the eleventh and twelfth centuries will always be most closely associated with the Cistercian order and the name of St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).1 The Cistercians came to be more widespread, more influential than any other order; their fame was based not only on their zeal for purity and simplicity, but also on their skill at organisation. Our growing knowledge of the other orders of their time must not be allowed to abolish our sense of their originality. But equally, we must not allow the glamour of Cîteaux, the splendid ruins of her numerous daughterhouses or the eloquence of Bernard to hide from us the preparation which Cîteaux had in the eleventh century; or the context of religious revival in which she was born.
