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Born in 1090, at Fontaines, near Dijon. France;
died at Clairvaux, 21 August, 1153. His parents were Tescelin, lord of
Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both belonging to the highest nobility of
Burgundy. Bernard, the third of a family of seven children, six of whom were
sons, was educated with particular care, because, while yet unborn, a devout
man had foretold his great destiny. At the age of nine years, Bernard was
sent to a much renowned school at Chatillon-sur-Seine, kept by the secular
canons of Saint-Vorles. He had a great taste for literature and devoted
himself for some time to poetry. His success in his studies won the
admiration of his masters, and his growth in virtue was no less marked.
Bernard's great desire was to excel in literature in order to take up the
study of Sacred Scripture, which later on became, as it were, his own tongue.
"Piety was his all," says Bossuet. He had a special devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, and there is no one who speaks more sublimely of the Queen of
Heaven. Bernard was scarcely nineteen years of age when his mother died.
During his youth, he did not escape trying temptations, but his virtue
triumphed over them, in many instances in a heroic manner, and from this time
he thought of retiring from the world and living a life of solitude and
prayer.
St. Robert, Abbot of Molesmes, had founded, in
1098, the monastery of Citeaux, about four leagues from Dijon, with the
purpose of restoring the Rule of St. Benedict in all its rigour. Returning to
Molesmes, he left the government of the new abbey to St. Alberic, who died in
the year 1109. St. Stephen had just succeeded him (1113) as third Abbot of
Citeaux, when Bernard with thirty young noblemen of Burgundy, sought
admission into the order. Three years later, St. Stephen sent the young
Bernard, at the head of a band of monks, the third to leave Citeaux, to found
a new house at Vallee d'Absinthe, or Valley of Bitterness, in the Diocese of
Langres. This Bernard named Claire Vallee, of Clairvaux, on the 25th of June,
1115, and the names of Bernard and Clairvaux thence became inseparable.
During the absence of the Bishop of Langres, Bernard was blessed as abbot by
William of Champeaux, Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, who saw in him the
predestined man, servum Dei. From that moment a strong friendship sprang up
between the abbot and the bishop, who was professor of theology at Notre Dame
of Paris, and the founder of the cloister of St. Victor.
The beginnings of Clairvaux were trying and
painful. The regime was so austere that Bernard's health was impaired by it,
and only the influence of his friend William of Champeaux, and the authority
of the General Chapter could make him mitigate his austerities. The
monastery, however, made rapid progress. Disciples flocked to it in great
numbers, desirous of putting themselves under the direction of Bernard. His
father, the aged Tescelin, and all his brothers entered Clairvaux as
religious, leaving only Humbeline, his sister, in the world and she, with the
consent of her husband, soon took the veil in the Benedictine Convent of Jully.
Clairvaux becoming too small for the religious who crowded there, it was
necessary to send out bands to found new houses. In 1118, the Monastery of
the Three Fountains was founded in the Diocese of Chalons; in 1119, that of
Fontenay in the Diocese of Auton (now Dijon) and in 1121, that of Foigny,
near Veirins, in the Diocese of Lain (now Soisson), Notwithstanding this
prosperity, the Abbot of Clairvaux had his trials. During an absence from
Clairvaux, the Grand Prior of Cluny, Bernard of Uxells, sent by the Prince of
Priors, to use the expression of Bernard, went to Clairvaux and enticed away
the abbot's cousin, Robert of Chatillon. This was the occasion of the
longest, and most touching of Bernard's letters.
In the year 1119, Bernard was present at the
first general chapter of the order convoked by Stephen of Citeaux. Though not
yet thirty years old, Bernard was listened to with the greatest attention and
respect, especially when he developed his thoughts upon the revival of the
primitive spirit of regularity and fervour in all the monastic orders. It was
this general chapter that gave definitive form to the constitutions of the
order and the regulations of the "Charter of Charity" which Pope
Callixtus II confirmed 23 December, 1119. In 1120 Bernard composed his first
work "De Gradibus Superbiae et Humilitatis" and his homilies which
he entitles "De Laudibus Mariae". The monks of Cluny had not seen,
with satisfaction, those of Citeaux take the first place among the religious
orders for regularity and fervour. For this reason there was a temptation on
the part of the "Black Monks" to make it appear that the rules of
the new order were impracticable. At the solicitation of William of St.
Thierry, Bernard defended himself by publishing his "Apology" which
is divided into two parts. In the first part he proves himself innocent of
the invectives against Cluny, which had been attributed to him, and in the
second he gives his reasons for his attack upon averred abuses. He protests
his profound esteem for the Benedictines of Cluny whom he declares he loves
equally as well as the other religious orders. Peter the Venerable, Abbot of
Cluny, answered the Abbot of Clairvaux without wounding charity in the least,
and assured him of his great admiration and sincere friendship. In the
meantime Cluny established a reform, and Suger himself, the minister of Louis
le Gros, and Abbot of St. Denis, was converted by the apology of Bernard. He
hastened to terminate his worldly life and restore discipline in his
monastery. The zeal of Bernard did not stop here; it extended to the bishops,
the clergy, and the faithful, and remarkable conversions of persons engaged
in worldly pursuits were among the fruits of his labours. Bernard's letter to
the Archbishop of Sens is a real treatise "De Officiis
Episcoporum". About the same time he wrote his work on "Grace and
Free Will".
In the year 1128, Bernard assisted at the Council
of Troyes, which had been convoked by Pope Honorius II, and was presided over
by Cardinal Matthew, Bishop of Albano. The purpose of this council was to
settle certain disputes of the bishops of Paris, and regulate other matters
of the Church of France. The bishops made Bernard secretary of the council,
and charged him with drawing up the synodal statutes. After the council, the
Bishop of Verdun was deposed. There then arose against Bernard unjust
reproaches and he was denounced even in Rome, as a monk who meddled with
matters that did not concern him. Cardinal Harmeric, on behalf of the pope,
wrote Bernard a sharp letter of remonstrance. "It is not fitting"
he said "that noisy and troublesome frogs should come out of their
marshes to trouble the Holy See and the cardinals". Bernard answered the
letter by saying that, if he had assisted at the council, it was because he
had been dragged to it, as it were, by force. "Now illustrious
Harmeric", he added, "if you so wished, who would have been more
capable of freeing me from the necessity of assisting at the council than
yourself? Forbid those noisy troublesome frogs to come out of their holes, to
leave their marshes . . . Then your friend will no longer be exposed to the
accusations of pride and presumption". This letter made a great
impression upon the cardinal, and justified its author both in his eyes and
before the Holy See. It was at this council that Bernard traced the outlines
of the Rule of the Knights Templars who soon became the ideal of the French
nobility. Bernard praises it in his "De Laudibus Novae Militiae".
The influence of the Abbot of Clairvaux was soon
felt in provincial affairs. He defended the rights of the Church against the
encroachments of kings and princes, and recalled to their duty Henry
Archbishop of Sense, and Stephen de Senlis, Bishop of Paris. On the death of
Honorius II, which occurred on the 14th of February, 1130, a schism broke out
in the Church by the election of two popes, Innocent II and Anacletus II.
Innocent II having been banished from Rome by Anacletus took refuge in
France. King Louis le Gros convened a national council of the French bishops
at Etampes, and Bernard, summoned thither by consent of the bishops, was
chosen to judge between the rival popes. He decided in favour of Innocent II,
caused him to be recognized by all the great Catholic powers, went with him
into Italy, calmed the troubles that agitated the country, reconciled Pisa
with Genoa, and Milan with the pope and Lothaire. According to the desire of
the latter, the pope went to Liege to consult with the emperor upon the best
means to be taken for his return to Rome, for it was there that Lothaire was
to receive the imperial crown from the hands of the pope. From Liege, the
pope returned to France, paid a visit to the Abbey of St. Denis, and then to
Clairvaux where his reception was of a simple and purely religious character.
The whole pontifical court was touched by the saintly demeanor of this band
of monks. In the refectory only a few common fishes were found for the pope,
and instead of wine, the juice of herbs was served for drink, says an
annalist of Citeaux. It was not a table feast that was served to the pope and
his followers, but a feast of virtues. The same year Bernard was again at the
Council of Reims at the side of Innocent II, whose oracle he was; and then in
Aquitaine where he succeeded for the time in detaching William, Count of
Poitiers, from the cause of Anacletus.
In 1132, Bernard accompanied Innocent II into
Italy, and at Cluny the pope abolished the dues which Clairvaux used to pay
to this celebrated abbey—an action which gave rise to a quarrel between the
"White Monks" and the "Black Monks" which lasted twenty
years. In the month of May, the pope supported by the army of Lothaire,
entered Rome, but Lothaire, feeling himself too weak to resist the partisans
of Anacletus, retired beyond the Alps, and Innocent sought refuge in Pisa in
September, 1133. In the meantime the abbot had returned to France in June,
and was continuing the work of peacemaking which he had commenced in 1130.
Towards the end of 1134, he made a second journey into Aquitaine, where William
X had relapsed into schism. This would have died out of itself if William
could have been detached from the cause of Gerard, who had usurped the See of
Bordeaux and retained that of Angoul EAme. Bernard invited William to the
Mass which he celebrated in the Church of La Couldre. At the moment of the
Communion, placing the Sacred Host upon the paten, he went to the door of the
church where William was, and pointing to the Host, he adjured the Duke not
to despise God as he did His servants. William yielded and the schism ended.
Bernard went again to Italy, where Roger of Sicily was endeavouring to
withdraw the Pisans from their allegiance to Innocent. He recalled the city
of Milan, which had been deceived and misled by the ambitious prelate Anselm,
Archbishop of Milan, to obedience to the pose, refused the Archbishopric of
Milan, and returned finally to Clairvaux. Believing himself at last secure in
his cloister Bernard devoted himself with renewed vigour to the composition
of those pious and learned works which have won for him the title of
"Doctor of the Church". He wrote at this time his sermons on the
"Canticle of Canticles".
In 1137 he was again forced to leave his solitude
by order of the pope to put an end to the quarrel between Lothaire and Roger
of Sicily. At the conference held at Palermo, Bernard succeeded in convincing
Roger of the rights of Innocent II and in silencing Peter of Pisa who
sustained Anacletus. The latter died of grief and disappointment in 1138, and
with him the schism. Returning to Clairvaux, Bernard occupied himself in
sending bands of monks from his too-crowded monastery into Germany, Sweden,
England, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy. Some of these, at the
command of Innocent II, took possession of Three Fountains Abbey, near the
Salvian Waters in Rome, from which Pope Eugenius III was chosen. Bernard
resumed his commentary on the "Canticle of Canticles", assisted in
1139, at the Second General Lateran Council and the Tenth Oecumenical, in
which the surviving adherents of the schism were definitively condemned.
About the same time, Bernard was visited at Clairvaux by St. Malachi,
metropolitan of the Church in Ireland, and a very close friendship was formed
between them. St. Malachi would gladly have taken the Cistercian habit, but
the sovereign pontiff would not give his permission. He died, however, at
Clairvaux in 1148.
In the year 1140, we find Bernard engaged in
other matters which disturbed the peace of the Church. Towards the close of
the eleventh century, the schools of philosophy and theology, dominated by
the passion for discussion and a spirit of independence which had introduced
itself into political and religious questions, became a veritable public
arena, with no other motive than that of ambition. This exaltation of human
reason and rationalism found an ardent and powerful adherent in Abelard, the
most eloquent and learned man of the age after Bernard. "The history of
the calamities and the refutation of his doctrine by St. Bernard", says
Ratisbonne, "form the greatest episode of the twelfth century".
Abelard's treatise on the Trinity had been condemned in 1121, and he himself
had thrown his book into the fire. But in 1139 he advocated new errors.
Bernard, informed of this by William of St. Thierry, wrote to Abelard who
answered in an insulting manner. Bernard then denounced him to the pope who
caused a general council to be held at Sens. Abelard asked for a public
discussion with Bernard; the latter showed his opponent's errors with such
clearness and force of logic that he was unable to make any reply, and was
obliged, after being condemned, to retire. he pope confirmed the judgment of
the council, Abelard submitted without resistance, and retired to Cluny to
live under Peter the Venerable, where he died two years later.
Innocent II died in 1143. His two successors,
Celestin II and Lucius, reigned only a short time, and then Bernard saw one
of his disciples, Bernard of Pisa, Abbott of Three Fountains, and known
thereafter as Eugenius III, raised to the Chair of St. Peter. Bernard sent
him, at his own request, various instructions which compose the "Book of
Consideration", the predominating idea of which is that the reformation
of the Church ought to commence with the sanctity of the head. Temporal matters
are merely accessories; the principal are piety, meditation, or
consideration, which ought to precede action. The book contains a most
beautiful page on the papacy, and has always been greatly esteemed by the
sovereign pontiffs, many of whom used it for their ordinary reading.
Alarming news came at this time from the East.
Edessa had fallen into the hands of the Turks, and Jerusalem and Antioch were
threatened with similar disaster. Deputations of the bishops of Armenia
solicited aid from the pope, and the King of France also sent ambassadors.
The pope commissioned Bernard to preach a new Crusade and granted the same
indulgences for it which Urban II had accorded to the first. A parliament was
convoked at Vezelay in Burgundy in 1134, and Bernard preached before the assembly.
The King, Louis le Jeune, Queen Eleanor, and the princes and lords present
prostrated themselves at the feet of the Abbot of Clairvaux to receive the
cross. The saint was obliged to use portions of his habit to make crosses to
satisfy the zeal and ardour of the multitude who wished to take part in the
Crusade. Bernard passed into Germany, and the miracles which multiplied
almost at his every step undoubtedly contributed to the success of his
mission. The Emperor Conrad and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa, received the
pilgrims' cross from the hand of Bernard, and Pope Eugenius, to encourage the
enterprise, came in person to France. It was on the occasion of this visit,
1147, that a council was held at Paris, at which the errors of Gilbert de la
Poree, Bishop of Poitiers, were examined. He advanced among other absurdities
that the essence and the attributes of God are not God, that the properties
of the Persons of the Trinity are not the persons themselves in fine that the
Divine Nature did not become incarnate. The discussion was warm on both
sides. The decision was left for the council which was held at Reims the
following year (1148), and in which Eon de l'Etoile was one of the judges.
Bernard was chosen by the council to draw up a profession of faith directly
opposed to that of Gilbert, who concluding by stating to the Fathers:
"If you believe and assert differently than I have done I am willing to
believe and speak as you do". The consequence of this declaration was
that the pope condemned the assertions of Gilbert without denouncing him
personally. After the council the pope paid a visit to Clairvaux, where he
held a general chapter of the order and was able to realize the prosperity of
which Bernard was the soul.
The last years of Bernard's life were saddened by
the failure of the Crusade he had preached, the entire responsibility for
which was thrown upon him. He had accredited the enterprise by miracles, but
he had not guaranteed its success against the misconduct and perfidy of those
who participated in it. Lack of discipline and the over-confidence of the
German troops, the intrigues of the Prince of Antioch and Queen Eleanor, and
finally the avarice and evident treason of the Christian nobles of Syria, who
prevented the capture of Damascus, appear to have been the cause of disaster.
Bernard considered it his duty to send an apology to the pope and it is
inserted in the second part of his "Book of Consideration". There
he explains how, with the crusaders as with the Hebrew people, in whose favour
the Lord had multiplies his prodigies, their sins were the cause of their
misfortune and miseries. The death of his contemporaries served as a warning
to Bernard of his own approaching end The first to die was Suger (1152), of
whom the Abbot wrote to Eugenius III: "If there is any precious vase
adorning the palace of the King of Kings it is the soul of the venerable
Suger". Thibaud, Count of Champagne, Conrad, Emperor of Germany, and his
son Henry died the same year. From the beginning of the year 1153 Bernard
felt his death approaching. The passing of Pope Eugenius had struck the fatal
blow by taking from him one whom he considered his greatest friend and
consoler. Bernard died in the sixty-third year of his age, after forty years
spent in the cloister. He founded one hundred and sixty-three monasteries in
different parts of Europe; at his death they numbered three hundred and
forty-three. He was the first Cistercian monk placed on the calendar of
saints and was canonized by Alexander III, 18 January 1174. Pope Pius VIII
bestowed on him the title of Doctor of the Church. The Cistercians honour him
as only the founders of orders are honoured, because of the wonderful and
widespread activity which he gave to the Order of Citeaux.
The works of St. Bernard are as follows:
"De
Gradibus Superbiae", his first treatise; "Homilies on the Gospel
'Missus est'" (1120); "Apology to William of St. Thierry"
against the claims of the monks of Cluny; "On the Conversion of
Clerics", a book addressed to the young ecclesiastics of Paris (1122);
"De Laudibus Novae Militiae", addressed to Hughes de Payns, first
Grand Master and Prior of Jerusalem (1129). This is a eulogy of the military
order instituted in 1118, and an exhortation to the knights to conduct
themselves with courage in their several stations.
"De amore Dei" wherein St. Bernard shows that the manner of
loving God is to love Him without measure and gives the different degree of
this love; "Book of Precepts and Dispensations" (1131), which
contains answers to questions upon certain points of the Rule of St. Benedict
from which the abbot can, or cannot, dispense; "De Gratia et Libero
Arbitrio" in which the Catholic dogma of grace and free will is proved
according to the principles of St. Augustine; "Book of Considerations",
addressed to Pope Eugenius III; "De Officiis Episcoporum",
addressed to Henry, Archbishop of Sens.
His sermons are also numerous: "On Psalm 90,
'Qui habitat'" (about 1125); "On the Canticle of Canticles".
St. Bernard explained in eighty-six sermons only the first two chapters of
the Canticle of Canticles and the first verse of the third chapter.
There are also eighty-six "Sermons for the
Whole Year"; his "Letters" number 530. Many other letters,
treatises, etc., falsely attributed to him are found among his works, such as
the "l'Echelle du Cloitre", which is the work of Guigues, Prior of
La Grande Chartreuse, les Meditations, l'Edification de la Maison interieure,
etc. SOURCE: EWTN
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