Searching for instances of abbatial violence against recalcitrant novices thankfully turns up very little evidence that this was a common practice,3 yet it is clear that forcible enclosure was certainly present in other ways in the Cistercian monasteries of western Europe. Yet even if the reader does acknowledge the didactic purpose embedded in Caesarius's rhetoric, the tale nevertheless continues to hint at a profoundly disquieting element of monastic life-confinement by force. The text's suggestion of violence may appear hyperbolic at first reading, despite the very real gravitas of the author's message. Such themes and concerns are familiar to any student of the Cistercian order, an order which continued to privilege withdrawal from the world and stabilitas as the foundations of monastic life even after more 'radical' notions of men-dicancy and apostolic emulation had begun to direct the purpose, function and expression of other forms of monastic life from the late twelfth century.2 Unfamiliar to the modern reader, however, may be the implicit agenda of forcible enclosure hidden behind the abbot's threat to disable the novice in this exemplum. Anxiety over apostasy and the ensuing scandal that apostates might bring to a monastery are also important here, as is monastic fear of the triumph of temptation: this story is the fiftieth capitulum in the fourth book of the Dialogus miraculorum, collectively entitled De tentatione. Believe me, I would rather keep you without your feet than to let you go away and bring disorder upon our house.') This cautionary tale has a number of didactic functions, not the least of which is the seriousness with which thirteenth-century Cistercians like Caesarius of Heisterbach expected novices to regard even their preliminary vows. Deciding to return to his prebend, the novice was confronted by the abbot, who on hearing of the novice's plans to abandon the Cistercian life announced: 'Bring me an axe.' When the novice inquired why, the abbot replied: 'That your feet be cut off.

more The thirteenth-century Dialogus miraculorum of Caesarius of Heisterbach includes the tale of a vexed and unhappy novice who was ill-suited to his avowed monastic profession.

The thirteenth-century Dialogus miraculorum of Caesarius of Heisterbach includes the tale of a ve.

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