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 BERNARD

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BERNARD

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 preaclied before the assembly. The Iving, Louis le Jeune, Queen Eleanor, and the princes and lords present pros- trated themselves at the feet of the .\bbot of Clair- vaux 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 Ger- many, 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 pil- grims' 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 \-isit, 1147, that a council was held at Paris, at which the errors of Gilbert de la Porfe, Bishop of Poitiers, were ex- amined. 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 Di- \-ine Nature did not become incarnate. The dis- cussion was warm on both sides. The decision was left for the council which was held at Reims the following year (114S), and in which Eon de I'Etoile was one of the judges. Bernard was chosen by the council to draw up a profession of faith directly op- posed to that of Gilbert, who concluded 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 Gil- bert 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 miscon- duct 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 An- tioch 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 Considera- tion". There he explains how, with the crusaders as with the Hebrew people, in whose favour the Lord had multiplied His prodigies, their sins were the cause of their misfortunes 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 beginnirg of the year 1153, Bernard felt his death approa ;hing. 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 num- bered three hundred and forty-three. He w-as the first Cistercian monk placed on the calendar of saints and was canonized by Alexander III, 18 Jan- uary, 1174. Pope Pius VIII bestowed on him the II.— 32

title of Doctor of the Chiu-ch. The Cistercians honour him as only the founders of orders are honoiued, 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 Superbiie", his first treatise; "Homilies on the Gospel ' Missus est ' " (1 120) ; "Apology to Wil- liam 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 Nov;e Militioe", addressed to Hughes de PajTis, first Grand Master and Prior of Jerusalem (1129). This is a eulogy of the military order in- stituted 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 lo\'ing God is to love Him without measure and gives the different degrees of tliis 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 princi- ples of St. Augustine; "Book of Consideration", addressed to Pope Eugenius III; "De Officiis Epis- coporum", addressed to Henry, Archbishop of Sens.

His sermons are also numerous: "On Psalm XC, '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 "I'Echelle du Cloitre ", which is the work of Guigues, Prior of La Grande Chartreuse, les Meditations, I'EdJfication de la Maison int^rieure, etc.

Works of St. Bernard, ed. Mabillon. 2 vols. fol. (1667, 1690). the latter edition forming the basis of Migne's ed.: Eales and Hodges, tr. (London. 1889), in Migne. P. L. This contains three lives of the saint: Vita Prima by William of St. Thierry. Ernacd de Bonneval, and Geoffroy of Auxerre; Vila Secunda by Alain of .Aiixerre; and Vita Bemardi by Johx l'Ermit. Besides these there are in the same edition the Liber Miraculorum of Herbert, the Exordium Magnum Cister- cience. and the Chronieon Claravallense (Pans. 1839-10, 4 vols, fol.: Milan. 1892. 3 vols, quarto); .\bbe de Ratisbonne, Life of St. Bernard (1842); Hcffer. Der lieilige Bernard von Clairvaux (.Miinster, 1886); Neander. Der heilige Bernard (Gotha. 18891; Abbe VArANDARD, S(. Bernard, Orator (1877). who also published a life (Paris, 1895-97).

M. GiLDAS.

Bernard of Cluny (or of Morlaix), a Bene- dictine monk of the first half of the twelfth century, poet, satirist, and hymn-writer, author of the famous verses "On the Contempt of the World". His parentage, native land, and education are hidden in obscurity. The sixteenth-centurj' writer John Pits (Scriptores Angliae, Ssec. XII) says that he was of English birth. He is frequently called MorlanenxU, which title most wTiters have interpreted to mean that he was a native of Morlaix in Brittany, though some credit him to Murlas near Puy in B6arn. A writer in the "Journal of Theological Studies" (1907), VIII, 3.54-359 contends that he belonged to the family of the Seigneurs of Montpellier in Langiiedoc, and was born at Murles, a possession of that dis- tinguished family; also that he was at first a monk of St. Sauveur d'Aniane, whence he entered Chmy under Abbot Pons (1109-22). It is certain that he was a monk at Cluny in the time of Peter the Venerable (1122-56), for his famous poem is dedi- cated to that abbot. It may have been written about 1140. He left some sermons and is said to be the author of certain monastic regulations known as the "Consuetudines Cluniacenses" (Hergott. Vetus Discipl. Monast., Paris, 172(5; Albers. Consuet. Cluniac. antiquiores, Monte Cassino, 1906), also of a