Cistercian Order Expansion

Timeline

1. 1140–1145Western Europe · EuropeIn the early 1140s the Cistercian order densely founded new monasteries in France and the Rhineland, rapidly replicating the monastic model through a system of mother houses and filial houses; the new houses emphasized land reclamation, farming and pastoral operations, and strict Benedictine rule, attracting noble donations of wasteland and forests.
2. 1146–1149Europe · EuropeWhile Bernard preached a crusade at Vézelay, the Cistercian order's prestige reached its peak; between 1146 and 1149 new houses expanded to England, Iberia, northern Italy, and Bohemia, with the total membership growing rapidly, and the Cistercian ideal of austere asceticism became the benchmark of twelfth-century monastic reform.