ABSTRACT
T he Cistercians, the white monks, were in their way the most conspicu ous, though not necessarily the most significant at this early stage. Patron age was fairly easy to find. Cistercian endeavour to w ithdraw from society and to set up their houses in the desert places, m eant that landlords could make over to them painlessly relatively unim portant stretches of land, not ably in the N orth o f England. Cistercian policy also facilitated foundation. M other-houses, once established, would colonise and supervise new group ings, and ultimately looked to C iteaux itself, where the holding o f annual chapters imposed discipline in the lesser bodies. T he three Continental monasteries, all brought in to the C iteaux family, o f Clairvaux, L ’Aumone
and Savigny were very active in England. W averley was founded from L’Aum one in 1128 and T intern in 1131; Rievaulx and Fountains from Clairvaux by 1132. Savigny took responsibility for Furness (1123) and six other houses, including N eath (1130), Basingwerk (1131), Q u arr (1132) and Buildwas (1135). By 1135 Furness had already set up itself three small daughterhouses. At this stage it would be wrong to lay too m uch emphasis on the size or im portance o f these Cistercian elements in themselves, though their potential was great and in some areas quite quickly realised. Rievaulx and Fountains provide outstanding examples. W ithin twenty years of her founda tion, Rievaulx could claim eleven flourishing houses as her progeny, ranging from Sibton in Suffolk to Kinloss, not far from Inverness. In exotic range, Fountains went even further. By 1150 she had twelve daughter-houses, including Kirkstall and W oburn. She also initiated the Cistercian penetration of Norway, sending a group from York to Lysekloster on the fjord near Bergen. A nother of her daughter-houses sent another group to the Oslo fjord, where they established an influential house on the island of Hovedo. But even more than by their own vitality it is as an index to the surgent spirituality of the first half o f the twelfth century that they are best regarded.1
