John of Ford and English Cistercian Writing 1167–1214

Cistercian writing produced in the half-century after the death of Ailred of Rievaulx seems in comparison with that of the earlier generation unattractive and undistinguished. This impression is, however, largely caused by the lack of any one figure comparable with the abbot of Rievaulx who might arrest our attention and then stimulate an appreciation of the whole scene. In addition, the brightness coming from that great light, to adopt a figure from Walter Daniel, has almost effaced the memory of those lesser lights who came after him. Yet it must be confessed at the outset that by literary standards little of their work is distinguished. None of it, however, is devoid of interest for the historian. It comes from a period whose course is difficult to trace, and besides helping us to understand better the order's intellectual and spiritual life, it shows us some of the connexions between this and Cistercian prosperity.