Monks and love in twelfth-century France

"This book is a new attempt to study the connections between medieval secular love literature and monastic doctrine on divine love. The enquiry proceeds from the fact that, in the twelfth century, religious houses were no longer recruiting among children, but among young adults, mostly noble. whose experience was mainly of court and castle life, the warlike activities of chivalry, and courtly literature. These recruits, with their new psychology, made use of the images and ways of expression received from their former life style and from the love poetry of the Song of Songs and Ovid. Monks and lay people belonged to the same society. What did each milieu receive from the other? What did the Christian community receive from the Jewish communities? In Champagne, living together in a small area, Marie de France, Heloise, Rashi's disciples, Bernard of Clairvaux, Chrétien de Troyes and their circles, all exchanged texts and ideas. These facts give us new insights on their emotions, their symbols, their views on human and divine love, and the use they made of feminine imagery in expressing them. Among these men and women who become more alive for us, the central figure is that of St. Bernard, who appears in his fully human dimensions." -- Publisher's description