Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity)
Speculum caritatis
Written at the insistence of Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred's first major treatise describes the three degrees of charity — charity toward God, toward neighbour, and toward oneself — as the heart of Cistercian formation. Aelred had spent his formative years in the Scottish royal household as steward to King David I before entering Rievaulx; his fluency in the psychology of court life and friendship gave this work an unusual ability to address the inner lives of the wellborn. The text was composed within a court-monastery nexus unique in 12th-century England and Scotland, and Aelred's subsequent career included repeated diplomatic missions from the court. Its meditative passages on Christ's humanity anticipate the full affective piety tradition.