Editing Cistercians (section)

====Cistercian reform====
[[File:São Bento e São Bernardo (1542) - Diogo de Contreiras.png|thumb|left|''[[Benedict of Nursia|Saint Benedict]] and [[Bernard of Clairvaux|Saint Bernard]]'' (1542), by [[Diogo de Contreiras]]. Saint Bernard is depicted in the white cowl of the Cistercians.]]
Harding framed the original version of the Cistercian constitution, soon to be called the ''[[Carta Caritatis]]'' (''Charter of Charity''). Although it was revised on several occasions to meet contemporary needs, from the outset it emphasised a simple life of work, love, prayer and self-denial. The Cistercians soon came to distinguish themselves from Benedictines by wearing white or grey [[tunic]]s instead of black; white habits are common for reform movements.<ref name="Hollister209">Hollister, p 209</ref> Much of Cistercian reform took place against the rivalry with the famous Benedictine abbey of Cluny, where wealth and excess were said to have set in.<ref>Lekai, Ideals and Reality, p. 25.</ref>

Harding acquired land for the abbey to develop to ensure its survival and ethic. As to grants of land, the order would normally accept only undeveloped land, which the monks then developed by their own labour. For this they developed over time a very large component of uneducated lay brothers known as ''conversi''.<ref>Hollister, p 209–10</ref> In some cases, the order accepted developed land and relocated the [[serf]]s elsewhere.<ref name="Hollister209"/>

=====Charter of Charity=====
The outlines of the Cistercian reform were adumbrated by Alberic, but it received its final form in the ''[[Carta Caritatis|Carta caritatis]]'' (''Charter of Charity''), which was the defining guide on how the reform was to be lived.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://users.skynet.be/scourmont/script/docprim/car_car/lat/carta_car_som.htm |title=Latin text |publisher=Users.skynet.be |access-date=18 January 2010 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181230/http://users.skynet.be/scourmont/script/docprim/car_car/lat/carta_car_som.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[[Jacques Paul Migne|Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Latina|Patrol. Lat.]]'' clxvi. 1377</ref> This document governed the relations between the various houses of the Cistercian order, and exercised a great influence also upon the future course of western [[monachism]]. From one point of view, it may be regarded as a compromise between the primitive Benedictine system, in which each abbey was autonomous and isolated, and the centralization of [[Cluny Abbey|Cluny]].{{sfn|Butler|1911|p=394}}

The Cistercians maintained the independence of individual houses: each abbey had its own abbot, elected by its own monks, and its own property and finances administered without outside interference. On the other hand, all the abbeys were subjected to the [[General Chapter]], the constitutional body which exercised vigilance over the order. Made up of all the abbots, the General Chapter met annually in mid-September at [[Cîteaux]]. Attendance was compulsory, with the abbot of Cîteaux presiding.<ref name="Watt52">Watt, p 52</ref> He was to enforce conformity to Cîteaux in all details of monastic observance, liturgy, and customs. Cîteaux was always to be the model to which all the other houses had to conform.<ref>See [[F. A. Gasquet]], ''Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History,'' pp. xxxv–xxxviii, prefixed to English trans. Of Montalembert's ''Monks of the West'', ed. 1895</ref>