Resumen de Cîteaux, les papes et la réforme "grégorienne": l´engagement actif des moines à travers les miniatures réalisées sous l´abbatiat d´Étienne Harding
The analysis of several illuminations from the manuscripts copied and illuminated at Citeaux during the first third of the 12th century reveals the way in which the community of monks guided by Stephen Harding received, elaborated and expressed the reformist ideas by means of the iconographies of their original creations. Thus in the Bible of Stephen Harding, an illumination of Esther and Ahasuerus proposes a reading of the relations between spiritual and temporal powers. The image shows the objects equally used in the vocabulary of the reformist speeches (for example the King´s sword), while the Queen wears a red cloak that probably evokes that of the popes of the same period. Stephen Harding seems to especially identify himself with two saints presented in while cowls in two others illuminations: Jerome giving the Vulgate to the Pope Damasus, and Gilles, who had placed his monastery under the direct dependence of the pontiff. Like them, the English abbot placed his idea and his actions under the sign of continuity with Rome. The ties between the pontiff and Citeaux were, moreover, closer than historiography has so far indicated. Very early on, Stephen maintained personal relations with Guy, Archbishop of Vienna, who became pope under the name Calixtus II
