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The Medieval Church · c. 1125
Apologia to Abbot William
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
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What it is
An attack on monastic luxury that turns on carved cloisters: what are these ridiculous monsters doing where the brothers read, and would the money not be better given to the poor?
Why it lasted
The most quoted medieval text on religious art, and the theological basis of the austere Cistercian aesthetic.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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