NO ONE TRAVELLING hundreds of kilometres in modern France and Britain to visit the abbatial church of Tiron and the scattered ruins and transformed remains of its abbeys, priories, and churches would immediately realize that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they all were part of the congregation of Tiron (ca. 1107– 1109 to 1792– 1794). This congregation, founded by a hermit some 40 kilometres southwest of Chartres, became noted for its crafts. The Tironensian order expanded to a large and prosperous congregation under a remarkable abbot, and formed a centralized “international” network of exchange and communication between France and the British Isles. The congregation of Tiron survived until the French Revolution and then passed into near-obscurity.

Tiron has also passed into near-obscurity in accounts of twelfth-century monasticism. The congregation of Cluny (founded 910) with its wealth and elaborate liturgies was contrasted with the congregation of Cîteaux (founded 1098) and its emphasis on austerity and simplicity. Cîteaux absorbed a portion of the population growth, coalesced, and expanded into an enormous international congregation during the twelfth century, whereas Cluny was sometimes presented as being in decline. Cîteaux's willingness to accept marginal wasteland, its initial exclusion of women and its rejection of income sources like churches, tithes, rents, mills, or serfs formed an image that was projected onto other reformed orders. Cistercian studies have proliferated and less attention has been paid to other reformed orders. More recent scholarship includes studies of the Carthusians, Gilbertines, Premonstratensians, Fontevraudians, Savignacs, and Tironensians, and revisions have been proposed regarding the Cistercians, which include the participation of women. Published cartularies have made primary sources accessible to inform specialized studies. Studies of French religious foundations in Scotland reflect the “Auld Alliance” between Scotland and France to curb English expansionism and the Anglo-Normans’ desire to extend educational and technological advances to a rural economy. They show the variety of the reformed orders, including marked differences from Cîteaux.

Whereas the contrast between Cluny and Cîteaux has dominated the study of reformed monasticism, Giles Constable observes that their differences have been exaggerated.