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BERNARD, SAINT (Iogo-1153)
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See also:BERNARD, See also:SAINT (Iogo-1153) , See also: When in 1124 See also:Pope See also:Honorius II.mounted the See also:chair of St See also:Peter, Bernard was already reckoned among the greatest of See also:French churchmen; he now shared in the most important ecclesiastical discussions, and papal legates sought his counsel. Thus in 1128 he was invited by See also:Cardinal See also:Matthew of Albano to the See also:synod of Troyes, where he was instrumental in obtaining the recognition of the new order of Knights See also:Templars, the rules of which he is said to have drawn up; and in the following See also:year, at the synod of Chalonssur-See also:Marne, he ended the crisis arising out of certain charges brought against See also: In See also:northern Italy the effect of his See also:personality and of his See also:preaching was immense; See also:Milan itself, of all the Lombard cities most jealous of the imperial claims, surrendered to his eloquence, submitted to Lothair and to Innocent, and tried to force Bernard against his will into the vacant see of St See also:Ambrose. In 1137, the year of Lothair's last See also:journey to Rome, Bernard was back in Italy again; at See also:Monte Cassino, setting the affairs of the monastery in order, at See also:Salerno, trying in vain to induce Roger of Sicily to declare against Anacletus, in Rome itself, agitating with success against the antipope. Anacletus died on the 25th of See also:January 1138; on the 13th of See also: 239).
Having healed the schism within the church, Bernard was next called upon to attack the enemy without. See also:Languedoc especially had become a hotbed of See also:heresy, and at this See also:time the preaching of Henry of See also:Lausanne (q.v.) was See also:drawing thousands from the orthodox faith. In June 1145, at the invitation of Cardinal Alberic of See also:Ostia, Bernard travelled in the See also:south, and by his preaching did something to See also:stem the See also:flood of heresy for a while. Far more important, however, was his activity in the following year, when, in obedience to the pope's command, he preached a crusade. The effect of his eloquence was extra-See also:ordinary. At the great See also:meeting at See also:Vezelay, on the 21st of March, as the result of his See also:sermon, See also: From whatever cause—whether the growing See also:jealousy of the cardinals, or the loss of See also:prestige owing to the rumoured failure of the crusade, the success of which he had so confidently predicted—Bernard's influence, hitherto so ruinous to those suspected of heterodoxy, on this occasion failed of its full effect. On the news of the full extent of the disaster that had overtaken the crusaders, an effort was made to retrieve it by organizing another expedition. At the invitation of See also:Suger, abbot of St See also:Denis, now the virtual ruler of France, Bernard attended the meeting of See also:Chartres convened for this purpose, where he himself was elected to conduct the new crusade, the choice being confirmed by the pope. He was saved from this task, for which he was physically and constitutionally unfit, by the intervention of the Cistercian abbots, who forbade him to undertake it. Bernard was now ageing, broken by his austerities and by ceaseless work, and saddened by the loss of several of his early friends. But his intellectual See also:energy remained undimmed. He continued to take an active See also:interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and his last work, the De Consideratione, shows no sign of failing power. He died on the 2oth of See also:August 1153. The greatness of St Bernard See also:lay not in the qualities of his See also:intellect, but of his character. Intellectually he was the See also:child of his See also:age, inferior to those subtle minds whom the world, fired by his contagious zeal, conspired to crush. Morally he was their See also:superior; and in this moral superiority lay the See also:secret of his power. The age recognized in him the embodiment of its ideal: that of See also:medieval monasticism at its highest development. The world had no meaning for him See also:save as a place of banishment and trial, in which men are but " strangers and pilgrims " (Serm. i., Epiph. n. 1; Serm. vii., See also:Lent. n. 1); the way of See also:grace, back to the lost See also:inheritance, had been marked out once for all, and the See also:function of See also:theology was but to maintain the landmarks inherited from the past. With the subtleties of the See also:schools he had no sympathy,.and the dialectics of the schoolmen quavered into silence before his terrible invective. Yet, within the limits of his See also:mental See also:horizon, Bernard's See also:vision was clear enough. His very life proves with what merciless See also:logic he followed out the principles of the See also:Christian faith as he conceived it; and it is impossible to say that he conceived it amiss. For all his overmastering zeal he was by nature neither a See also:bigot nor a persecutor. Even when he was preaching the crusade he interfered at See also:Mainz to stop the persecution of the See also:Jews, stirred up by the monk Radulf. As for heretics, " the little foxes that spoil the vines," these " should be taken, not by force of arms, but by force of See also:argument," though, if any heretic refused to be thus taken, he considered " that he should be driven away, or even a See also:restraint put upon his See also:liberty, rather than that he should be allowed to spoil the vines " (Serm. lxiv.). He was evidently troubled by the See also:mob violence which made the heretics " martyrs to their unbelief." He approved the zeal of the See also:people, but could not advise the See also:imitation of their See also:action, " because faith is to be produced by persuasion, not imposed by force "; adding, however, in the true spirit of his age and of his church, " it would without doubt be better that they should be coerced by the See also:sword than that they should be allowed to draw away many other persons into their See also:error." Finally, oblivious of the precedent of the See also:Pharisees, he ascribes the steadfastness of these " See also:dogs " in facing death to the power of the See also:devil (Serm. lxvi. on See also:Canticles ii. 15). This is Bernard at his worst. At his best—and, fortunately, this is what is mainly characteristic of the See also:man and his writings—he displays a See also:nobility of nature, a See also:wise charity and tenderness in his dealings with others, and a genuine humility, with no touch of servility, that make him one of the most See also:complete exponents of the Christian life. His broadly Christian character is, indeed, witnessed to by the enduring quality of his influence. The author of the Imitatio drew See also:inspiration from his writings; the reformers saw in him a medieval See also:champion of their favourite See also:doctrine of the supremacy of the divine grace; his See also:works, down to the See also:present day, have been reprinted in countless See also:editions. This is perhaps due to the fact that the chief See also:fountain of his owninspiration was the See also:Bible. He was saturated in its See also:language and in its spirit; and though he read it, as might be expected, uncritically, and interpreted its See also:plain meanings allegorically—as the See also:fashion of the day was—it saved him from the grosser aberrations of medieval Catholicism. He accepted the teaching of the church as to the reverence due to our See also:Lady and the See also:saints, and on feast-days and festivals these receive their due meed in his sermons; but in his letters and sermons their names are at other times seldom invoked. They were overshadowed completely in his mind by his See also:idea of the grace of God and the moral splendour of See also:Christ; " from Him do the Saints derive the odour of sanctity; from Him also do they shine as See also:lights " (Ep. 464). The cause of Bernard's extraordinary popular success as a preacher can only imperfectly be judged by the sermons that survive. These were all delivered in Latin, evidently to congregations more or less on his own intellectual level.' Like his letters, they are See also:gull of quotations from and reference to the Bible, and they have all the qualities likely to See also:appeal to men of culture at all times. " Bernard," wrote See also:Erasmus in his See also:Art of Preaching, " is an eloquent preacher, much more by nature than by art; he is full of See also:charm and vivacity and knows how to reach and move the affections." The same is true of the letters and to an even more striking degree. They are written on a large variety of subjects, great and small, to people of the most diverse stations and types; and they help us to understand the adaptable nature of the man, which enabled him to appeal as successfully to the unlearned as to the learned. Bernard's works fall into three categories:—(1) Letters, of which over five See also:hundred have been preserved, of great interest and value for the See also:history of the See also:period. (2) See also:Treatises: (a) dogmatic and polemical, De gratia et libero arbitrio, written about 1127, and following closely the lines laid down by St See also:Augustine; De baptismo aliisque quaestionibus ad mag. Hugonem de S. Victore; Contra quaedam capitala errorum Abaelardi ad Innocentem H. (in See also:justification of the action of the synod of Sens); (b) ascetic and mystical, De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae, his first work, written perhaps about 1121; De diligendo Deo (about 1126); De conversione ad clericos, an address to candidates for the See also:priest-hood; De Consideratione, Bernard's last work, written about 1148 at the pope's See also:request for the edification and guidance of Eugenius III.; (c) about monasticism, Apologia ad Guilelmum, written about 1127 to William, abbot of \St See also:Thierry; De laude novae militiae ad milites templi (c. 1132-\136); De precepto et See also:dispensation, an See also:answer to various questions on monastic conduct and discipline addressed to him by the monks of St Peter at Chartres (some time before 1143); (d) on ecclesiastical See also:government, De moribus et officio episcoporum, written about 1126 for Henry, bishop of Sens; the De Consideratione mentioned above; (e) a See also:biography, De vita et See also:rebus gestis S. Malachiae, Hiberniae episcopi, written at the request of the Irish abbot Congan and with the aid of materials supplied by him; it is of importance for the ecclesiastical history of Ireland in the 12th See also:century; (f) sermons—divided into Sermones de tempore; de sarutis; de diversis; and eighty-six sermons, in Cantica Canticorum, an allegorical and mystical exposition of the See also:Song of See also:Solomon; (g) See also:hymns. Many hymns ascribed to Bernard survive, e.g. Jesu dulcis memoria, Jesus rex admirabilis, Jesu decus angelicum, Salve ca put cruentatum. Of these the three first are included in the See also:Roman See also:breviary. Many have been translated and are used in See also:Protestant churches. St Bernard's works were first published in anything like a complete edition at See also:Paris in i5o8, under the See also:title Seraphica melliflui devotique doctoris S. Bernardi scripia, edited by See also:Andre Bocard; the first really See also:critical and complete edition is that of Dom J. See also:Mabillon Sancti Bernardi opp. &c. (Paris, 1667, improved and enlarged in 1690, and again, by Massuet and Texier, in 1719), reprinted by J. P. See also:Migne, Patrolog. See also:lat. (Paris, 1859). There is an See also:English See also:translation of Mabillon's edition, including, how-ever, only the letters and the sermons on the Song of Songs, with the See also:biographical and other prefaces, by See also:Samuel J. Eales (4 vols., See also:London, 1889-1895). See further See also:Leopold Janauschek, Bibliographia Bernardina (See also:Vienna, 1891), which includes 2761 entries, including 120 works wrongly ascribed to Bernard. Among the numerous See also:modern works on St Bernard may be mentioned, besides the above, J. C. See also:Morison, The Life and Times of St Bernard (London, 1863) ; G. Chevallier, Histoire de Saint Bernard (2 vols., See also:Lille, 1888) ; S. J. Eales, St Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux (London, 189o, " Fathers for English Readers " See also:series) ; ib. Life and Works of St Bernard (London, 1889) ; R. S. See also:Storrs, Bernard of Clairvaux: the Times, the Man and His Work (New See also:York, 1893) ; See also:Comte d'See also:Haussonville, Saint Bernard (Paris, 1906). See also the See also:article by Vacandart in A. Vacant's Dictionnaire de theologie (with full bibliography), and that by S. M. See also:Deutsch in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (3rd ed.), vol. ii. (bibliography). Further works, monographs, &c., are given s. " Vita S. Bernardi " in See also:Potthast. Bibliotheca Historica Medii Aevi (See also:Berlin, 1896). (W. A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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