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Expansion throughout Britain: the nunneries
(6/6)
The White Monks attracted great interest and
enthusiasm from female religious in Britain, and a growing number
of nuns claimed to follow the Cistercian way of life. The Order
did not, however, officially recognise these nuns until 1213, and
soon thereafter backtracked, maintaining a rather ambivalent attitude
towards the incorporation of women.
Whilst some twenty-seven nunneries in Britain
called themselves Cistercian, it is impossible to know just how
many of these were formally acknowledged by the Order and subject
to the jurisdiction of the General
Chapter, and how many simply followed Cistercian customs. What
is clear is the profound impact that the Cistercians had on female
religious life in Britain.
[Read more about Cistercian nunneries]
The Cistercians had a notable influence on the
only English religious order, the Gilbertines
/ Order of Sempringham, which was founded for women by a Lincolnshireman,
Gilbert of Sempringham, c. 1131. The Gilbertines incorporated
Cistercian
features such as the inclusion of lay-brothers, a general chapter
and visitation of the houses. A swell in numbers incited Gilbert
to travel to the General Chapter at Cîteaux
in 1147, seeking the absorption of his order. Whilst his request
was refused, Gilbert received encouragement and advice from Bernard
of Clairvaux and Aelred of
Rievaulx; in fact it was Aelred who
was called upon in the 1160s to investigate the claim that Divine
intervention
had relieved a rather wayward Gilbertine nun of her pregnancy.(7)
A twelfth-century
nun of the Gilbertine
priory of Watton, fell in love with a lay-brother
of the community. The girl soon fell pregnant and there were
gruesome consequences ....
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