The roots of the reform movements in Hildegard’s time lay in the 10th and 11th century in Cluny (Burgundy), Hirsau (Black Forest) and Gorze (Lorraine). Grievances within the clergy, such as clerical marriage (Nicolaitism) and the purchase of holy offices (Simony), were intended to end and the reflection on Benedictine Rule as well as the return towards a vita apostolica – a life as the disciples of Jesus had led – was demanded. In order to achieve this, the Church had to be released from secular power structures. The reform resulted in a revitalisation of religious spirituality in the 12th century and researchers estimate that the number of monasteries increased tenfold between 1050 and 1150. The variety of religious ways of life also increased – up to the end of the 11th century the groups of people living in religious communities were only divided into two: monks and nuns, who lived a life according to the Benedictine Rule and Canons and Canonesses, who lived according to the regulations set up by the Council of Aachen in 816.

In 1098, the Novum Moasterium was founded in Cîteaux, and in 1119, Cistercians who were accepted as an order, added to the ancient communities as the first community with modern structures. In view of the display of splendour by rich monasteries and the overemphasis on liturgy, as was the case in nearby Cluny and the monasteries according to the Cluniac Reforms, the Cistercians wanted to follow the rule of Saint Benedict literally once more and live moderately and work for their living themselves. Through their bodily work, they soon turned into experts concerning fruit and wine growing, livestock breeding and the cultivation of land. In 1113, Bernard, the future Abbot of Clairvaux, entered the monastery in Cîteaux. With this, the boom and expansion of the order throughout of Europe started. When Bernard died in 1153, approximately 350 Cistercian monasteries existed, which after some time, however, sacrificed their ideals to practical needs (the high number of new members as well as the large areas of cultivated land).

Apart from the Canons living according to the Rule of Aachen, the Canons Regular existed who continued to follow the Rule of Aachen. After the Gregorian Reform of the 11th century they turned towards the vita apostolica. The most significant orders of the Canons Regular include the Premonstratensians and the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. Due to different interpretations of the decisive texts of the Augustinian Rule, the reform movement was divided. The followers of the ordo antiquus (e.g. Rottenbuch, Saint-Ruf) waived private possessions, but did not live strictly ascetic as the followers of the ordo novus (e.g. Premontré, Saint-Victor/Paris, Springiersbach) did. It could not be avoided that a competitive situation between the monastic and canonical side and also between the individual orders developed. Today, researchers do not consider this a crisis, but rather an expression of a very active and diverse vita religiosa.