Aelred z Rievaulx – wielki zapomniany średniowiecza

Abstract

The life and creation of Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167), the famous Cistercian abbot of Rievaulx (England), through the ages laid in ruin of oblivion. According to the scholars (P. Gasparotto, B. P. McGuire. Marsha L. Dutton), five reasons for this could be found: – he lived in the shadow of the mighty personality of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153); – tragic occurrence related with the sudden and total destruction of the Monastery of Rievaulx (1538), with dispersion of its community; – destruction of the Cloister caused the loss of the collection of about 300 of his letters, which could explain many events of his life; – perfection of his writings caused the best of them to be ascribed to the great authorities at that time (Agustin, Casiodor, Anselm, Bernard); – unfavorable reception of the methods of Aelred’s humanistic management with the Monastery of Rievaulx by his successors (Sylvan, Emald), who did everything possible to make him forgotten through the ages. Thus the memory of Aelred almost went out, and it even didn’t change with the symbolic act of the General Chapter from 1476 putting him on the list of the saints of Cistercian Order. We can say, he became the great forgotten man of the Middle Ages, since the XVII century known only through some of his works. Until 1901 only one version of his life was known (C. Horstmann, J. Caprgrave, J. Tynemouth). The study of F.M. Powicke demonstrates its groundwork on the first biography of his friend and secretary, W. Daniel’s Vita Aelredi cum Epistola ad Mauricium, written down directly after the death of Aelred. Powicke was the first who discovered and critically elaborated this work (1921-1950). But its hagiographical character, which undertakes rather the religious-moral aspect of the image of Aelred, cannot serve as an unique source of our acquaintance of his life. There is lack in it of the broad historical context and public face of the English abbot. To complete his image it was necessary to take into the consideration his autobiographical mentions from his spiritual works, accessible thanks to the critical study of A. Hoste and C.H. Talbot (1971), and other historical and literal sources. It was the work of many of the medieval (aelredian) scholars, among which distinguish: A. Squire, A. Stackpoole, and recently, Marsha L. Dutton. Fruits of their research help us at last to create an adequate biography of Aelred. According to this biography he appears as a prominent person of his century, in spite of his influence being limited to 12th century England and dimmed by the mighty personality of Bernard of Clairvaux. He was born in the family of the hereditary Scottish priest in Hexham (Northumberland, North England). It was a time in which the Gregorian reform of celibacy was introduced in England with the help of the bishops (elected from Normans, at one time (1066) invaders of England), new orders (Benedictine, Augustinian Canon, Cistercian), and local rulers. Married priests who didn’t want to abandon their wives were dismissed from their parish and replaced with the monks from the new orders (1074); likewise their sons couldn’t become priests (1095). It was probably the case of Aelred’s father, Eilaf (Marsha L. Dutton). His parish in Hexham was replaced by the Canons although he could keep his lifelong property. With the help of the local bishop of York (Thurstan) and the prior of Canons (Aschatil), he decided to invest his property and send his son to the Scottish court of their friend the King Henry I (1100-1135). Thus, after receiving his elementary education in the Benedictine school in Hexham and Durham, at the age of 14 Aelred is found in the company of the King’s son (Henry) and stepsons (Simon and Waldef), taking in this time the courtly and literal education. After ten years, in spite of a successful politic career (became the steward of the royal house), he chose the long reflected monastic life, entering (1134) in the just founded North England first Cistercian house in Rievaulx (1132). Now his whole life and career is related with the Cistercians, where he deepens his spiritual desires and enrolls his diplomatic skills, acquired once in the court. After seven years of novitiate, he became the novice master (1142-1143), later the prior of the daughter house of Rievaulx, Revesby (1143-1147), at last the abbot of Rievaulx, the function which he performed until his death (1147-1167). His unusual ability and talent, with the help of his broad social connection, quickly sent news about him, so during his management Rievaulx become the most neuralgic abbey in North England. We have undertaken his activity in many spheres of life: spiritual, pastoral, literal, administrative, political, social, in service of the Order, the Church, and the State. The last ten, and specially four, years of life, immobilized by his illness (the combination of kidney stone, arthritis, and perhaps shingles), and dispensed from many rules of Observance (1157), he devoted himself to his spiritual writing and guiding to the monks. He died 12 January 1167, after few days of agony. As the résumé of his greatness we have undertaken: because of his duties he was political, in the best form; the diplomat-mediator in the difficult and subtle affairs of the State and the Church; the bearer of the order and peace everywhere he appeared and with all possible forms, included also with his historiography; the splendid organizer of the monastic life using the humanistic sensibility related with his concept of friendship, sometimes the reason of his incomprehension and in any part of his oblivion; the friend of the great and the small of the world; the man of the great self-discipline and wisdom; adviser of the rulers, bishops and lords; the monk and mystic of great humility and love of God; the spiritual guide in indefatigable proclamation of Gospel and in his mystical works, setting him in the forefront of the biggest writers of the Cistercian Reform; in a word: he was the most powerful Cistercian in England, who contributed to the biggest flowering of the Cistercian Movement in British Islands. This is why the scholars sometimes compare him to the great Reformatory of Clairvaux, one of them calling him even “Bernard of the North” (C. Knowles).