Interest in the humanity of Christ and the desire to live the apostolic life in imitation of him influenced religious orders in the 12th century. The reformed orders of canons represent one aspect of this trend. The founder of the Premonstratensian order, Norbert of Xanten, was recognized for inspiring many to imitate the life of Christ. The order spread throughout Europe after its founding in 1120 and cultivated both the active and the contemplative religious life. Norbert’s order was part of a broader movement to regularize the life of all canons by enforcing monastic rules.

Traditional monastic life also underwent an apostolic-inspired reform in the late 11th and 12th centuries. Beginning with a few relatively small quasi-eremitic orders in Italy, such as the Camaldolese and the Vallombrosans, the movement spread to France with the founding of the extreme eremitic Grandmontines in 1077 and the eremitic Carthusians in 1084; it became as wide as Christendom with the multiplication of the daughter monasteries of Cîteaux (founded in 1098). The guiding principle of the Cistercians (based at Cîteaux) was exact observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, with emphasis on simplicity, poverty, and manual work. The addition of lay brothers tapped a large reservoir in an age of increased religious devotion and economic and population growth, and the organization of the order—which featured annual visitations and a general chapter—ensured good discipline and enabled the Cistercians to accommodate a vast family of houses scattered throughout the Latin church.

The success of Cîteaux owed much to the genius of St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux from 1115 to 1153, who was for 30 years the untitled religious leader of Europe. Owing to his influence, other new orders—such as the Premonstratensians, the English Gilbertines, and the military Knights Templars—accepted or imitated Cistercian practices. By the end of the 12th century, however, changing social conditions and growing urbanization necessitated a new kind of religious order that would assume the prominence in society once held by the monks.

The mendicant orders

In the early 13th century a new manifestation of the apostolic life appeared in the form of orders of mendicant preachers. The rise of the mendicants was in part a response to the revival of urban centers and the expansion of trade. The Waldenses, one of the first groups to adopt a life of evangelical poverty, were declared heretical for refusing to submit to ecclesiastical authority and for criticizing the church and its wealth. But the idea of adopting the apostolic life, prefigured by Robert d’Abrissel in the 12th century, was a powerful one that recalled the original purity and simplicity of the church at a time when both church and society were becoming increasingly wealthy and complex. Showing considerable foresight and discernment, Innocent III embraced the movement and made it part of the church when he approved the Franciscan and Dominican orders.

Francis of Assisi, a man of magnetic personality who believed that he was called by Christ to preach poverty, had no thought of founding an order, but his message and his genius exactly suited the age, and the vast concourse of his followers gradually transformed itself from a homeless, penniless band of preachers and missionaries in Italy into an international body governed by a single general and devoted to the service of the papacy. In contrast, Dominic de Guzmán (c. 1170–1221), whose vocation was preaching against heretics and whose followers kept a canonical rule, changed his existing institute into one of friars. Gradually the two groups became similar: international, articulated groups of men bound to an order but not to a community. They took the customary monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience but dropped the vow of stabilitas (“stability”) in favor of mobility, and they were governed by elected superiors under a supreme chapter and a general. Remarkably, first the Dominicans and then the Franciscans entered and soon dominated the theological schools of Paris and Oxford. Two similar bodies joined them, the Carmelites and the Austin Friars, and for almost a century the members of the various mendicant orders were the theologians, the preachers, and the confessors of the Christian people.

The rise of heresy

The same religious enthusiasm that contributed to the rise of Gregorian Reform and the orthodox movements of the late 11th and 12th centuries also inspired movements of religious dissent or heresy. The earliest episodes of heresy in the West predate the Gregorian Reform, and their ideals may have been absorbed by the Gregorians. In the early 12th century Gregorian Reform movement may have given rise to a wave of radical reformers whose religious zeal led them to excessive criticism of the church. The early dissenters, such as Tanchelm and Peter of Bruys, attracted large but ephemeral followings of clergy and laity. In the 1150s the Italian canon Arnold of Brescia (died 1155), an outspoken critic of clerical wealth and corruption, assumed the leadership of a revolt against the pope in Rome. Despite their popular appeal, these dissident leaders failed to inspire the kind of broad movement that would emerge later in the century.

By the 1140s and possibly earlier, Bogomil missionaries from the eastern Mediterranean or the Balkans appeared in parts of western Europe. Their preaching and ascetic lifestyle gave rise to the Cathari (from Greek katharos, meaning “pure,” from the ascetic lives of their leaders), a sect that became prominent in northern Italy and southern France. Although the Cathari maintained that they alone were true Christians, their leaders, the “perfects,” overtly denied many traditional Christian doctrines, such as the Incarnation of Christ (they taught a Docetist Christology, which maintained that Christ only appeared to assume the flesh). Cathari teachings were dualistic, regarding matter and the human body as evil and spirit as good. Consequently, the perfects ate no meat and practiced celibacy. The sect’s emphasis on poverty and its practice of mutual assistance appealed to many who were repelled by the luxury and wealth in which the Catholic hierarchy then lived. In the 1170s the Waldenses (named after their founder, the French merchant Valdes [often incorrectly known as Peter Waldo]) initiated another type of dissent in the Rhône valley and Piedmont. Anticipating St. Francis of Assisi, Valdes adopted a life of poverty and evangelism, and the movement grew in the newly emerging towns of Europe.

These groups, basically and professedly orthodox, together with the reform-minded Humiliati of Lombardy (Italy), practiced poverty, Scripture reading, and preaching. The Cathari were proscribed as heretics by the papacy and were attacked by a Crusade and later by the Inquisition, and they gradually disappeared. The Humiliati remained orthodox as a quasi-religious order. The Waldenses, largely through mismanagement by the bishops and papal refusal to allow them to preach, drifted away from the church. Officially condemned as heretical by Pope Lucius III (reigned 1181–85), they remained a non-Catholic body through the Middle Ages and afterward.

These heretical movements suggest that the great sense of purpose and energy that had opened the 12th century had been lost by the century’s last decades, which were notably barren of saints and other leaders. They also reflected the church’s inadequate response to changing social and economic conditions, such as the growth of towns and trade, and to the spiritual needs of the growing urban population of Europe. Moreover, the church was deemed too materialistic, and the pope himself seemed either part of the problem or unable to resolve the church’s difficulties.

Religious life in the 13th century

The 13th century was an age of fresh endeavor and splendid maturity in the realms of philosophy, theology, and art, and it has traditionally been regarded as the high point of medieval civilization. The revival of religious life and culture in the period was heralded by the vigorous papacy of Innocent III, one of the youngest and most energetic popes to hold the throne of St. Peter. As pope, Innocent intervened in the political affairs of various European rulers and expanded the jurisdictional claims of his predecessors, preparing the way for the great lawyer-popes of the 13th century. He was an advocate of Crusades in the Holy Land and against heretics. Concerned as well with the religious life of the church, he co-opted the mendicant movement of the Waldenses by recognizing the order of St. Francis and some groups of Humiliati. He also held the fourth Lateran Council (1215), one of the most important church councils of the Middle Ages.

The coming of the friars and the legislation of the fourth Lateran Council—including requirements of annual confession and Communion and a reduction in the number of impediments to marriage—saved the lower classes for the church and silenced many critics of the establishment. Well-trained and extremely mobile, the friars were able to reach and hold regions and peoples that the static monks and clergy had failed to persuade. The friars were also closely associated with the Beguines, a laywomen’s religious movement with roots in the late 12th century.

The 13th century in Europe as a whole was a time of pastoral activity in which bishops and university-trained clergy perfected the diocesan and parish organization and reformed many abuses. Nevertheless, the period was not without its share of controversies. The Beguines faced skepticism and prejudice despite their promotion of chastity, contemplation, and labor. The mendicants also encountered opposition. The early friars served and were welcomed by the bishops and parish clergy, but clashes soon occurred; the papacy gave the friars exemptions and privileges so wide that the basic rights of the secular clergy were threatened. An academic “war of pamphlets” led to an attack on the vocation and work of the friars. Finally, Boniface VIII (reigned 1294–1303) arranged a compromise that was just and workable; under a revised form it lasted for two centuries. A bishop could refuse friars entry into his diocese, but, once they had been admitted, the friars were free of his control.