[See also: BENEDICTINE ORDER; CISTERCIAN ORDER; CÎTEAUX]
Bouton, Jean de la Croix, and Jean Baptiste Van Damme, eds. Les plus anciens textes de Cîteaux.
Achel: Commentarii Cistercienses, 1974.
Laurent, Jacques, ed. Cartulaires de l’abbaye de Molesme. 2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1907–11.
Lackner, Bede K. The Eleventh-Century Background of Cîteaux. Washington, D.C.: Cistercian,
1972.
Spahr, Kolumban. Das Leben des hl. Robert von Molesme: Eine Quelle zur Vorgeschichte von
Cîteaux. Freiburg: Paulusdruckerei, 1944.
ROBERT PULLEN
(ca. 1080–1146). A noted English theologian of the first half of the 12th century, Robert
Pullen enjoys the distinction of being the first cardinal to have been born in the British
Isles. He is known to have studied at Paris under the tutelage of William of Champeaux,
sometime after 1103. In 1133, Robert moved from Exeter to Oxford, where he lectured
on the Bible for five years. From 1134, he held the prebend of the archdeaconry of
Rochester. Bernard of Clairvaux encouraged him to go to Paris to teach, which he did ca.
1142; but his travels soon took him to Rome as a cardinal, appointed by Pope Lucius II
(r. 1144–45). Robert published several sermons and the Sententiarum libri VIII
(composed at Oxford before 1142). This latter work seems to have had no apparent
influence on Peter Lombard, the author of the most famous sentence collection of the
day. Robert died at Viterbo in September of 1146.
Mark Zier
[See also: THEOLOGY]
Robert Pullen. Opera. PL 186.
Courtney, Francis. Cardinal Robert Pullen: An English Theologian of the Twelfth Century. Rome:
Universitatis Gregorianae, 1954.
ROCAMADOUR
. From the 12th century to the end of the 14th, the pilgrimage to Our Lady of
Rocamadour (Lot) was one of the most famous in Christendom. The holy city is set in
tiers up a rugged rock face rising 500 feet above the Alzou Canyon. The Great Stairway
(216 steps) leads from the lower town to the sacred precinct, where a small parvis,
formerly a cemetery, is enclosed by seven sanctuaries, the majority of which underwent
extensive restoration and rebuilding in the 19th century. The heart of Rocamadour is the
Miraculous Chapel of Our Lady, a small oratory (Gothic portal) that houses the famous
“Black Virgin,” an austere, 12th-century wooden reliquary statue, once covered with
silver and decorated with gold. On the façade are painted fragments of the Three Living
and Three Dead (15th c.). Two 12th-century sanctuaries virtually intact are St.
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