Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
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 Cîteaux,
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 Cîteaux, 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 Cîteaux, to found a new house at Vallée d'Absinthe, or Valley of Bitterness,
in the Diocese of Langres. This Bernard named Claire Vallée, 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 Châlons-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. n 1118, the Monastery of the
Three Fountains was founded in the Diocese of Châlons; in 1119, that of
Fontenay in the Diocese of Auton (now Dijon) and in 1121, that of Foigny, near
Vervins, in the Diocese of Laon (now Soissons), 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 Châtillon. 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 Cîteaux. 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 Cîteaux 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 Liège 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
Liège, 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 Cîteaux. 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 Porée, 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 Cîteaux.
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 Gratiâ 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 Cloître", which is the work of Guigues, Prior of
La Grande Chartreuse, les Méditations, l'Edification de la Maison intérieure, etc.
M. Gildas
Transcribed by Janet Grayson
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II
Copyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York