Abstract

Well into the twelfth century and beyond, most medieval Christians instinctively identified some form of the contemplative life, usually Benedictine monasticism, as the highest “order” in Christian society and the exemplar toward which all should strive. It is altogether appropriate then that within the broad compass of medieval studies few areas have attracted such concentrated attention since the Second World War as the religious revival of the twelfth century. This movement, hardly mentioned two generations ago in Charles Homer Haskins's “renaissance,” looms so large today that its preachers and reformers threaten at times to overshadow Haskins's poets, translators, lawyers, and scholars. Such a notable shift in emphasis could hardly have taken place without a distinct rearrangement of the historiographical terrain. To create a separate space worthy of monastic thought and culture, Jean Leclercq argued vigorously for a “monastic theology” that rivaled “scholasticism” in creativity and beauty. And to provide a setting adequate to so many contemporary reformers, several scholars argued for a “crisis” in traditional Benedictine monasticism. The “crisis of cenobitism” during the years between 1050 and 1150 has elicited several influential essays and earned a separate entry in Giles Constable's bibliography of medieval monasticism. This essay will examine critically the evidence for such a “crisis” and propose another approach toward understanding Benedictine monasticism in the early twelfth century