Monastic Education and Biblical Violence

This essay examines the use of stories of sexual violence in two Cistercian works, Baldwin of Forde’s sermons, and a treatise on self-formation often attributed to Stephen of Sawley. The Cistercians had to form adult converts who came from a culture of elite masculinity, whether the aristocracy or schools. These works use imaginative engagement with biblical narratives to subvert these secular ideals, reinterpreting them as a state of weakness and violation, in contrast to the monastery’s secure and loving community. Their imaginative moralizing reinterpretations are distinct from not only allegorical readings but also from their literal warning to female religious.