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Title: Aelred of Rievaulx on Holy Royalty - A Twelfth-Century View of Lay Spirituality
Author(s): YOHE, Katherine
Journal: Studies in Spirituality
Volume: 13    Date: 2003   
Pages: 169-198
DOI: 10.2143/SIS.13.0.504595

Abstract :
Aelred of Rievaulx spent several years in the court of King David of Scotland before he joined the Cistercian order. As a Cisterian, he wrote a history of the kings of England,a lament for King David and a vita of King Edward the Confessor. This article examines Aelred’s descriptions of holy kings, looking to see how he answers the following questions: What distinguishes the sanctity of the laity from that of the religious? Must it follow a monastic ideal? Can one be holy in the world? Do marriage, sex, property or politics impede sanctity? It also discusses to what extent Aelred understood the king’s vocation as a call to be sanctified within the secular order and a call to sanctify the temporal order.

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