This paper offers additional evidence in the debate over Cistercian foundations in twelfth-century society through a socio-economic survey of the first Cistercian abbey. At present there are two broadly opposing views. For R. Fossier, Orval Abbey is a typical Cistercian foundation, remaining alien to its surroundings because it was created by a powerful territorial prince; for G. Despy, however, it is integral to the region, depending for prosperity on the socio-economic growth around it. Approximately one hundred twelfth-century charters transcribed in the Abbey's late medieval cartularies were analyzed. The results indicated that the Orval Abbey estates were formed from lands and usufructs donated by regional potentates of varying social rank. Later, however, the estates were expanded through both the addition of various rights over land, and reclamation carried out by the monks themselves. The abbey developed in a region where the relationships between lay and ecclesiastical landlords were already complex. The compromises recorded in its charters indicate the mutual-aid relationships that recent scholarship has shown between Cistercian monasteries and other regional social groups. This paper therefore suggests a position halfway between Fossier and Despy.

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