§ 14.
Cîteaux, like Cluny, stood at the head of
a federation of religious houses exempt from episcopal
authority. These houses, however, were ruled by their
own abbots, not by priors dependent on the abbot
of Cîteaux; and thus the Cistercian abbeys were
saved from the difficulties which befell the Cluniac
in common with other alien houses. The Charter of
Charity, drawn up in 1119, regulated the growth of
the order and the relations between its monasteries.
When the numbers of any house grew too large,
it might, with the consent of the annual chapter at
Cîteaux, send out at least twelve brethren, with
a thirteenth as abbot, to found a new monastery.
Thus Waverley was colonised from the abbey of
L'Aumône in Normandy. Fountains, founded in 1132
and augmented from Clairvaux in 1134 or 1135, sent
out colonies to Newminster in Northumberland (1138),
Louth Park in Lincolnshire (1139), Woburn in Bedfordshire
(1145) and Lysa in Norway (1146). The
right of visitation of Cistercian houses belonged to
the abbots of their parent monasteries: the abbot
of Cîteaux was visitor of Clairvaux, the abbot of
Clairvaux visitor of Fountains, and so on; while
Cîteaux itself was visited by the abbots of Clairvaux
and its three other eldest daughters. Monasteries
thus founded were to be in places remote from the
conversation of men. Such names as Vaudey (
Vallis
Dei) and Valle Crucis mark the favourite site of
such abbeys in secluded valleys: it was seldom that
the rule was transgressed, as in the case of St Mary
Graces near the tower of London. The churches
were dedicated in honour of our Lady: stone bell-towers
were forbidden as well as wooden towers of
excessive height, the windows were filled with plain
glass, all paintings were prohibited save painted
wooden crucifixes, and vestments and other ornaments
were of the plainest kind compatible with
dignity. All workshops, stables, etc. were within
the abbey precincts, and precautions were taken
against the growth of any colony of lay-folk near
the monastery by the order that any house built
outside the precinct wall was to be pulled down.
A similar precaution regulated the establishment of
the abbey farms or granges at a specified minimum
distance from each other. Temporary guests were
admitted under special conditions; but, after the
dedication of the church and its octave were over, the
presence of women within the precinct was forbidden.
