Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/347

 GROWTH OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH 299 Thus, while Cluny had declined, the monastic movement had grown. The most influential churchman of the twelfth century never became pope. This was St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), who, as a Cistercian monk, refused all ecclesiastical offices and honors. But he de- cided a disputed papal election and healed a schism; he peached the second crusade; he often settled disputes between princes and prelates, and he arbitrated inter- national difficulties. He was of noble descent with a beauti- ful face and graceful manners, but gave himself over to a life of rigorous asceticism and mystic devotion. Some of the hymns ascribed to him are still familiar to-day and are sung in English translation even in Protestant churches; for instance, those beginning — "Jesus, the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills the breast"; and j a " Of Him who did salvation bring, I could forever think and sing." St. Bernard was as outspoken concerning the faults of the clergy and abuses in the Church as he was fearless in rebuk- ing kings and lords whom he believed to be offending God. He could move both kings and crowds by his eloquence ; but he had little sympathy for the secular learning which was by this time beginning to appear again in the West. He always put faith above reason. Besides the widespread monastic revival, there was another great movement which was at least semi-religious in character; namely, the crusading movement , which will be discussed in the next chapter on the expansion of Christendom. The First Crusade was in- spired by the pope in a speech made at Clermont-Ferrand in south central France in 1095, and the crusading move- ment as a whole illustrates the great hold which the Church had upon the men of that time.