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 BRUNO

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BRUNO

Robert, Bishop of Langres, and a large number of prelates and abbots.

In 1075 St. Bruno was appointed chancellor of the church of Reims, and he had then to give him- self especially to the administration of the diocese. Meanwhile the pious Bishop Gervais, friend of St. Bruno, had been succeeded by Manasses de Gournai, who quickly became odious for his impiety and violence. The chancellor and two other canons were commissioned to bear to the papal legate. Hugh of Die, the complaints of the indignant clergy, and at the Council of Autun. 1(177. they obtained the sus- pension of the unworthy prelate. The latter's reply was to raze the houses of his accusers, confiscate their goods, sell their benefices, and appeal to the pope. Bruno then absented himself from Reims for a while, and went probably to Rome to defend the justice of his cause. It was only in 1080 that a definite sentence, confirmed by a rising of the people, compelled Manasses to withdraw ami take refuge with the Kmperor Henry IV. Free then to choose another bishop, the clergy were on the point of uniting their vote upon the chancellor. He, however, had far different designs in view. According to a tradition preserved in the Carthusian Order, Bruno was persuaded to abandon the world by the sight of a celebrated prodigy, popularized by the brush of Lesueur — the triple resurrection of the Parisian doctor, Raymond Diocres. To this tradition may be opposed the silence of contemporaries, and of the first biographers of the saint; the silence of Bruno himself in his letter to Raoul le Vert, Provost of Reims; and the impossibility of proving that he ever visited Paris. He had no need of such an extraor- dinary argument to cause him to leave the world. Some time before, when in conversation with two of his friends, Raoul and Fulcius. canons of Reims like himself, they had been.so enkindled with the Cud and the desire of eternal goods that they had made a vow to abandon the world and to em- brace the religions life. This vow, uttered in 1077, could not be put into execution until 1080, owing to various circumstances.

The first idea of St. Bruno on leaving Reims io have been to place himself and his com- panions under the direction of an eminent solitary, St. Robert, who had recently (1075) settled at Molesme in the Diocese of Langres, together with a band of other solitaries who were later on (1098) to form the Cistercian Order. But he soon found that this was not his vocation, and after a short sojourn at Seche-Fontaine near Molesme, he left two of his companions, Peter and Lambert, and betook him- self with six others to Hugh of Chateauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble, and, according to some authors, one of his pupils. The bishop, to whom God had shown these men in a dream, under the image of seven stars, conducted and installed them himself (1084) in a wild spot on the Alps of Dauphino named ( 'hart reuse, about four leagues from Grenoble, in the midst of precipitous rocks and mountains almost always covered with snow. With St. Bruno were Landuin, the two Stephens of Bourg and Die. canons of St. Rufus, and Hul'Ii the Chaplain, "all. the most learned men of their time", and two laymen. Andrew and Guerin. who afterwards became the first lay brothers. They built a little monastery where thej lived in deep retreat and poverty, entirely occupied in prayer and study, and frequently honoured by the visits of St. Hugh who became like one of i hem- selves. Their manner ol life has been recorded by

a contemporary, Guiberl of Nogent, who visited them in their solitude. 1 1 >e vitfl -ua. I, ii. )

Meanwhile, another pupil of St. Bruno, Eudes of

Chatillon, had become pope under the name of Urban II (1088). Resolved to continue the work of reform commenced by Gregory VII, and being

obliged to struggle against the anti-pope, Guibert of Ravenna, and the Emperor Henry IV, he sought to surround himself with devoted allies and called his ancient master ad Scdis Apoatolicw servitium. Thus the solitary found himself obliged to leave the spot where he had spent more than six years in retreat, followed by a part of his community, who could not make up their minds to live separated from him (1090). It is difficult to assign the place w huh he then occupied at the pontifical court, or his influence in contemporary events, which was entirely hidden and confidential. Lodged in the palace of the pope himself and admitted to his coun- cils, and charged, moreover, with other collaborators, in preparing matters for the numerous councils of this period, we must give him some credit for their results. But he took care always to keep himself in the background, and although he seems to have assisted at the Council of Benevento (March, 1091), we find no evidence of his having been present at the Councils of Troja (March, 1093), of Piacenza (March, 1095), or of Clermont (November, 1095). His part in history is effaced. All that we can say with certainty is that he seconded with all his power the sovereign pontiff in his efforts for the reform of the clergy, efforts inaugurated at the Council of Melfi (1089) and continued at that of Benevento. A short tame after the arrival of St. Bruno, the pope had been obliged to abandon Rome before the victorious forces of the emperor and the anti-pope. He withdrew with all his court to the south of Italy.

During the voyage, the former professor of Reims attracted the attention of the clergy of Reggio in further Calabria, which had just lost its archbishop, Arnulph (1090), and their votes were given to him. The pope and the Norman prince, Roger, Duke of Apulia, strongly approved of the election and pressed St. Bruno to accept it. In a similar juncture at Reims he had escaped by flight; this time he again escaped by causing Rangier, one of his former pupils, to be elected, who was fortunately near by at the Benedictine Abbey of La Cava near Salerno. But he feared that such attempts would be renewed; moreover he was weary of the agitated life imposed upon him, and solitude ever invited him. He begged, therefore, and after much trouble obtained, the pope's permission to return again to his solitary life. His intention was to rejoin his brethren in Dauphin^, as a letter addressed to them makes clear. But the will of Urban II kept him in Italy, near the papal court, to which he could be called at need. The place chosen for his new retreat by St. Bruno and some followers who had joined him was in the Diocese of Squillace, on the eastern slope of the great chain which crosses Calabria from north to south, and in a high valley three miles long and two in width, cov- ered with forest. The new solitaries constructed a little chapel of planks for their pious reunions and. in the depths of the woods, cabins covered with mud for their habitations. A legend says that St. Bruno whilst at prayer was discovered by the hounds of Roger, (ireat Count of Sicily and Calabria and uncle of the Duke of Apulia, who was then hunting in the neighbourhood, and who thus learnt to know and venerate him; 1ml the count had no need to wail for thai occa ion io know him, for it was probably upon his invitation that the new solitaries settled upon his domains. That same year (1(191 ) he visited them, made them a grant of the lands they occupied, and a dose friendship was formed between them. More than once St. Brunowenl to Mileto to take part in the joy- and sorrows of the noble family, to visit the count when el. i 1098 and 1 1(11 i, and to baptize In- -on Roger (1097), the future King of Sicily. Hut more often it was Roger who went into the desert

to visit hi- frii i ii. through his generosity,

the monaster} of St, Stephen was built, in 1095, near