Laon reveals. The resemblance is strictly confined to the plan. The churches of Prémontré
were much more richly decorated and emphatically followed local practices in style and
technique, as befits the churches of regular canons. Very few of them seem to have
accepted Cistercian austerity in architecture and decoration.
William W.Clark
[See also: BRAINE; DOMMARTIN; LAON]
Clark, William W. “Cistercian Influences on Premonstratensian Church Planning: Saint-Martin at
Laon.” In Studies in Cistercian Art and Architecture. Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1984, Vol. 2, ed.
M.Lillich, pp. 161–88.
PRÉMONTRÉ
. Located in the wilderness near Laon, Prémontré (Aisne) was the site of a community of
regular canons and lay persons and the mother house of the Premonstratensian order,
founded ca. 1120 by Norbert of Xanten. A wealthy and worldly cleric associated with the
imperial court, Norbert was converted to a life of eremitic asceticism in 1115. After an
abortive attempt to reform the priests at Xanten, Norbert received papal authorization as
an itinerant preacher. He proved to be a gifted preacher whose attacks on ecclesiastical
abuses and calls for spiritual reform attracted many followers. He was finally persuaded
to found a community composed of clerical and lay, male and female members in the
isolation of Prémontré. From the beginning, this group was dedicated to poverty, manual
labor, personal asceticism, and contemplative prayer, much in line with the other
movements of reform—lay, clerical, and monastic—of the day. Norbert also incorporated
clerical functions and isolation from the world into the communal ideal. In 1126, Norbert
left Prémontré to become archbishop of Magdeburg, where he continued his efforts to
reform the clergy and to launch missionary efforts in northern Germany, until his death in
1134. As a wandering preacher, Norbert, like Robert d’Arbrissel, attracted numerous
female followers. He organized these women into convents alongside the male
monasteries of the order, and initially they shared a church while living in separate
buildings. Later, in the 1130s, the separation of communities of women from
communities of men was initiated, a move that led to the gradual decline of houses of
canonesses.
The Premonstratensians followed the Rule of St. Augustine but amplified and modified
it with their own Statutes, first drawn up (1131–34) under Hugh of Fosses, who
succeeded Norbert in 1126. These statutes and later versions were significantly indebted
to Cistercian customs with regard to the details of daily life and discipline. Premon-
stratensians also adopted the Cistercian practice of an annual chapter-general.
Communities were soon to be found not only in France, England, and Italy but also in
Palestine and eastern Europe. The White Canons, as they were called because of their
white (i.e., undyed) wool habits, became known especially for their dedication to poverty,
to the care of the poor, to quiet (as a result of communal isolation and/or individual
discipline), and to the clerical responsibility for the cure of souls.
Grover A.Zinn
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