Gerald of Wales’ comment on the Cistercians’ dietary habits

The satirist, Gerald of Wales, who was writing in the late twelfth / early thirteenth century, complained that the Cistercians were hypocritics who openly observed a strict diet, but in private places deputed to gluttony indulged in meats and fine foods.

Gerald’s stories must not be taken too seriously – he was a critic of the Cistercians in his later years and was also fond of a colourful tale. Nevertheless, other contemporary sources including statutes issued by the General Chapter and accounts, such as Abbot Gervase of Louth Park’s last testament, suggest that his claims were not wholly unfounded; whilst Gerald may have embroidered the facts his stories were not utter inventions.

Gerald recounts one occasion when Abbot John of Battle visited a Cistercian abbey in Sussex; this presumably was Robertsbridge, founded in 1176, which was the only Cistercian abbey in the county. Gerald vividly describes how the abbot of the house led Abbot John through the cloister, but forcibly prevented him from entering the refectory, as the servers were dining. Human nature as it is, the more Abbot John was prevented from entering the refectory, the more determined he was to see what was going on inside. Eventually John managed to open the door and realised why the abbot of the house had been so eager to keep him out, for there he saw the servers enjoying a fine feast of meats and spiced drinks. John teasingly asked the Cistercian abbot to which saint these ‘relics’ ( i.e. the meat bones) belonged, and returned to his house flabbergasted by what he had seen.
[Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera IV: Speculum Ecclesiae (London, 1873), pp. 215-6.]

Gerald also tells of a parish priest from Hereford who frequently visited a Cistercian house where he conferred goods and benefits. On one occasion the priest was poorly received by the community. Dinner was a cheerless and meagre affair since, like the other guests, he was forced to observe the Cistercians’ abstemious diet. After eating he rose from the table and walked through the court, looking at the various lodgings and offices when, on reaching the innermost chamber, he noticed that the door was open, ventured a peep inside and, to his horror, saw the abbot with eight or ten of the thirteen brethren gorging themselves in splendour on meat, capons, geese, wine, good beer and mead served in silver jugs adorned with gold and silver. The abbot’s table, in fact, heaved with fine foods. Unfortunately the text breaks off at this point, the result of fire damage, but it would seem that the priest cursed the community, leapt on his horse and departed, never again to darken their doors or bestow his largesse.
[Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae, pp. 210-11.]

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