Spiritual Tractates

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Abbot of Ford bishop of Worcester archbishop of Canterbury-Baldwin remained a contemplative in a world of medieval intrigue. The acerbic Gerald the Welshman who admired few people and accompanied Baldwin on visitation in Wales considered him gullible and further out of his depth at each ecclesiastical promotion. the Benedictines of Canterbury cathedral found his unworldliness vexsome. But to the Cistercians of Ford in Dorser he was loved as a spiritual guide and teacher of prayers.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>The </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Spiritual Tractates</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)> were written almost entirely during the decade Baldwin lived at Forde probably as sermons which were then recast later. They reveal a man thoroughly and happily at home in cistercian spirituality an acute theologian well aware of contemporary currents and one of the last true representatives of the rich patristic-monastic tradition.</span></p><p></p>