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The Cistercians through medieval eyes: how the Cistercians saw themselves (7/7)
Trampling the flowers of the
world with the foot of forgetfulness, counting riches and honours
as dung, beating with the fist of conscience on the faces of
mutable things, spurning fleshly desires and vain glory in food
and drink.... Using only so much and such means of sustaining
life as will just maintain the needs of the body. It seemed to him that the food
and drink were tasteless, the clothing scratchy and cheap, the
manual labour hard, the vigils and chants burdensome, and the tenor
of the whole Order too austere... he debated quitting the Cistercians
and turning back to the canons.
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