After the ‘golden twelfth century’ the Order of Cîteaux quickly started to experience a decline. There was again debate among the monks, this time over the right interpretation of the Cistercian ideal. Two groups emerged: those who supported a more moderate monastic lifestyle, and those who pressed for strictness and penitence. The last group refers to ‘l’étroite observance’ or ‘strict observance’.
A new reformation pressed forward. We are now in the seventeenth century. Abbot Armand-Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé - shortened to ‘Abbot de Rancé’ - first reformed his own monastery La Trappe. Gradually, many monasteries of the Order adopted the reform until finally a new Order arose: the ‘Order of the Cistercians of Strict Observance’, generally called Trappists. This is alongside the ‘Order of Cistercians of Ordinary Observance’, who remained faithful to the practices of the time.
With his interpretation of the Rule of Saint Benedict and his understanding of the spirituality of Cîteaux, Abbot de Rancé again tied in with the tradition of the old monks of the deserts of Egypt in the third century.
