OF THE PERILS OF HIS ABBEY AND OF THE REASONS FOR THE WRITING OF
THIS HIS LETTER
Reflecting often upon all these things, I determined to make
provision for those sisters and to undertake their care in every
way I could. Furthermore, in order that they might have the greater
reverence for me, I arranged to watch over them in person. And
since now the persecution carried on by my sons was greater and
more incessant than that which I formerly suffered at the hands of
my brethren, I returned frequently to the nuns, fleeing the rage of
the tempest as to a haven of peace. There, indeed, could I draw
breath for a little in quiet, and among them my labours were
fruitful, as they never were among the monks. All this was of the
utmost benefit to me in body and soul, and it was equally essential
for them by reason of their weakness.
But now has Satan beset me to such an extent that I no longer know
where I may find rest, or even so much as live. I am driven hither
and yon, a fugitive and a vagabond, even as the accursed Cain (Gen.
iv, 14). I have already said that "without were fightings, within
were fears" (II Cor. vii, 5), and these torture me ceaselessly, the
fears being indeed without as well as within, and the fightings
wheresoever there are fears. Nay, the persecution carried on by my
sons rages against me more perilously and continuously than that of
my open enemies, for my sons I have always with me, and I am ever
exposed to their treacheries. The violence of my enemies I see in
the danger to my body if I leave the cloister; but within it I am
compelled incessantly to endure the crafty machinations as well as
the open violence of those monks who are called my sons, and who
are entrusted to me as their abbot, which is to say their father.
Oh, how often have they tried to kill me with poison, even as the
monks sought to slay St. Benedict! Methinks the same reason which
led the saint to abandon his wicked sons might encourage me to
follow the example of so great a father, lest, in thus exposing
myself to certain peril, I might be deemed a rash tempter of God
rather than a lover of Him, nay, lest it might even be judged that
I had thereby taken my own life. When I had safeguarded myself to
the best of my ability, so far as my food and drink were concerned,
against their daily plottings, they sought to destroy me in the
very ceremony of the altar by putting poison in the chalice. One
day, when I had gone to Nantes to visit the count, who was then
sick, and while I was sojourning awhile in the house of one of my
brothers in the flesh, they arranged to poison me, with the
connivance of one of my attendants, believing that I would take no
precautions to escape such a plot. But divine providence so ordered
matters that I had no desire for the food which was set before me;
one of the monks whom I had brought with me ate thereof, not
knowing that which had been done, and straightway fell dead. As for
the attendant who had dared to undertake this crime, he fled in
terror alike of his own conscience and of the clear evidence of his
guilt.
After this, as their wickedness was manifest to every one, I began
openly in every way I could to avoid the danger with which their
plots threatened me, even to the extent of leaving the abbey and
dwelling with a few others apart in little cells. If the monks knew
beforehand that I was going anywhere on a journey, they bribed
bandits to waylay me on the road and kill me. And while I was
struggling in the midst of these dangers, it chanced one day that
the hand of the Lord smote me a heavy blow, for I fell from my
horse, breaking a bone in my neck, the injury causing me greater
pain and weakness than my former wound.
Using excommunication as my weapon to coerce the untamed
rebelliousness of the monks, I forced certain ones among them whom
I particularly feared to promise me publicly, pledging their faith
or swearing upon the sacrament, that they would thereafter depart
from the abbey and no longer trouble me in any way. Shamelessly and
openly did they violate the pledges they had given and their
sacramental oaths, but finally they were compelled to give this and
many other promises under oath, in the presence of the count and
the bishops, by the authority of the Pontiff of Rome, Innocent, who
sent his own legate for this special purpose. And yet even this did
not bring me peace. For when I returned to the abbey after the
expulsion of those whom I have just mentioned, and entrusted myself
to the remaining brethren, of whom I felt less suspicion, I found
them even worse than the others. I barely succeeded in escaping
them, with the aid of a certain nobleman of the district, for they
were planning, not to poison me indeed, but to cut my throat with a
sword. Even to the present time I stand face to face with this
danger, fearing the sword which threatens my neck so that I can
scarcely draw a free breath between one meal and the next. Even so
do we read of him who, reckoning the power and heaped-up wealth of
the tyrant Dionysius as a great blessing, beheld the sword secretly
hanging by a hair above his head, and so learned what kind of
happiness comes as the result of worldly power (Cicer. 5, Tusc.)
Thus did I too learn by constant experience, I who had been exalted
from the condition of a poor monk to the dignity of an abbot, that
my wretchedness increased with my wealth; and I would that the
ambition of those who voluntarily seek such power might be curbed
by my example.
And now, most dear brother in Christ and comrade closest to me in
the intimacy of speech, it should suffice for your sorrows and the
hardships you have endured that I have written this story of my own
misfortunes, amid which I have toiled almost from the cradle. For
so, as I said in the beginning of this letter, shall you come to
regard your tribulation as nought, or at any rate as little, in
comparison with mine, and so shall you bear it more lightly in
measure as you regard it as less. Take comfort ever in the saying
of Our Lord, what he foretold for his followers at the hands of the
followers of the devil: "If they have persecuted me, they will also
persecute you (John xv, 20). If the world hate you, ye know that it
hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world
would love his own" (ib. 18-19). And the apostle says: "All that
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim.
iii, 12). And elsewhere he says: "I do not seek to please men. For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ"
(Galat. i, 10). And the Psalmist says: "They who have been pleasing
to men have been confounded, for that God hath despised them."
Commenting on this, St. Jerome, whose heir methinks I am in the
endurance of foul slander, says in his letter to Nepotanius: "The
apostle says: 'If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ.' He no longer seeks to please men, and so is made Christ's
servant" (Epist. 2). And again, in his letter to Asella regarding
those whom he was falsely accused of loving: "I give thanks to my
God that I am worthy to be one whom the world hates" (Epist. 99).
And to the monk Heliodorus he writes: "You are wrong, brother, you
are wrong if you think there is ever a time when the Christian does
not suffer persecution. For our adversary goes about as a roaring
lion seeking what he may devour, and do you still think of peace?
Nay, he lieth in ambush among the rich."
Inspired by those records and examples, we should endure our
persecutions all the more steadfastly the more bitterly they harm
us. We should not doubt that even if they are not according to our
deserts, at least they serve for the purifying of our soul. And
since all things are done in accordance with the divine ordering,
let every one of true faith console himself amid all his
afflictions with the thought that the great goodness of God permits
nothing to be done without reason, and brings to a good end
whatsoever may seem to happen wrongfully. Wherefore rightly do all
men say: "Thy will be done." And great is the consolation to all
lovers of God in the word of the Apostle when he says: "We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God"
(Rom. viii, 28). The wise man of old had this in mind when he said
in his Proverbs: "There shall no evil happen to the just"
(Prov. xii, 21). By this he clearly shows that whosoever grows
wrathful for any reason against his sufferings has therein departed
from the way of the just, because he may not doubt that these
things have happened to him by divine dispensation. Even such are
those who yield to their own rather than to the divine purpose, and
with hidden desires resist the spirit which echoes in the words,
"Thy will be done," thus placing their own will ahead of the will
of God. Farewell.
APPENDIX
PIERRE ABÉLARD
Petrus Abaelardus (or Abailardus) was born in the year 1079 at
Palets, a Breton town not far from Nantes. His father, Berengarius,
was a nobleman of some local importance; his mother, Lucia, was
likewise of noble family. The name "Abaelardus" is said to be a
corruption of "Habelardus," which, in turn, was substituted by
himself for the nickname "Bajolardus" given to him in his student
days. However the name may have arisen, the famous scholar
certainly adopted it very early in his career, and it went over
into the vernacular as "Abélard" or "Abailard," though with a
multiplicity of variations (in Villon's famous poem, for example,
it appears as "Esbaillart").
For the main facts of Abélard's life his own writings remain the
best authority, but through his frequent contact with many of the
foremost figures in the intellectual and clerical life of the early
twelfth century it has been possible to check his own account of
his career with considerable accuracy. The story told in the
"Historia Calamitatum" covers the events of his life from boyhood
to about 1132 or 1133,--in other words, up to approximately his
fifty-third or fifty-fourth year. That the account he gives of
himself is substantially correct cannot be doubted; making all due
allowance for the violence of his feelings, which certainly led him
to colour many incidents in a manner unfavourable to his enemies,
the main facts tally closely with all the external evidence now
available.
A very brief summary of the events of the final years of his life
will serve to round out the story. The "Historia Calamitatum" was
written while Abélard was still abbot of the monastery of St.
Gildas, in Brittany. The terrors of his existence there are fully
dwelt on in his autobiographical letter, and finally, in 1134 or
1135, he fled, living for a short time in retirement. In 1136,
however, we find him once more lecturing, and apparently with much
of his former success, on Mont Ste. Genevieve. His old enemies were
still on his trail, and most of all Bernard of Clairvaux, to whose
fiery adherence to the faith Abélard's rationalism seemed a sheer
desecration. The unceasing activities of Bernard and others finally
brought Abélard before an ecclesiastical council at Sens in 1140,
where he was formally arraigned on charges of heresy. Had Abélard's
courage held good, he might have won his case, for Bernard was
frankly terrified at the prospect of meeting so formidable a
dialectitian, but Abélard, broken in spirit by the prolonged
persecution from which he had suffered, contented himself with
appealing to the Pope. The indefatigable Bernard at once proceeded
to secure a condemnation of Abélard from Rome, whither the accused
man set out to plead his case. On the way, however, he collapsed,
both physically and in spirit, and remained for a few months at the
abbey of Cluny, whence his friends removed him, a dying man, to the
priory of St. Marcel, near Châlons-sur-Saône. Here he died on April
21, 1142.
A discussion of Abélard's position among the scholastic
philosophers would necessarily go far beyond the proper limits of a
mere historical note. He stands out less commandingly as a
constructive philosopher than as a master of dialectics. He was, as
even his enemies admitted, a brilliant teacher and an unconquerable
logician; he was, moreover, a voluminous writer. Works by him which
have been preserved include letters, sermons, philosophical and
religious treatises, commentaries on the Bible, on Aristotle and on
various other books, and a number of poems.
Many of the misfortunes which the "Historia Calamitatum" relates
were the direct outcome of Abélard's uncompromising position as a
rationalist, and the document is above all interesting for the
picture it gives of the man himself, against the background of
early twelfth century France. A few dates will help the general
reader to connect the life surrounding Abélard with other and more
familiar facts. William the Conqueror had entered England thirteen
years before Abélard's birth. The boy was eight years old when the
Conqueror died near Rouen during his struggle with Philip of
France. He was seventeen when the First Crusade began, and twenty
when the crusaders captured Jerusalem.
Two of the men who most profoundly influenced the times in which
Abélard lived were Hildebrand, famous as Pope Gregory VII, and
Louis VI (the Fat), king of France. It was to Hildebrand that the
Church owed much of that regeneration of the spirit which gave it
such vitality throughout the twelfth century. Hildebrand died,
indeed, when Abélard was only six years old, but he left the Church
such a force in the affairs of men as it had never been before. As
for Louis the Fat, who reigned from 1108 to 1137, it was he who
began to lift the royal power in France out of the shadow which the
slothfulness and incompetence of his immediate predecessors, Henry
I and Philip I, had cast over it. Discerning enough to see that the
chief enemies of the crown were the great nobles, and constantly
advised by a minister of exceptional wisdom, Suger, abbot of St.
Denis, Louis did his utmost to protect the towns and the churches,
and to bring that small part of France wherein his power was felt
out of the anarchy and chaos of the eleventh century.
It was the France of Louis VI and Sager which formed the background
for the great battle between the realists and the nominalists, the
battle in which Abélard played no small part. His life was divided
between the towns wherein he taught and the Church which
alternately welcomed and denounced him. His fellow-disputants have
their places in the history of philosophy; the story of Abélard's
love for Héloïse has set him apart, so that he has lived for eight
centuries less as a fearless thinker and masterly logician than as
one of the glowingly romantic figures of the Middle Ages.
"A FRIEND"
It is not known to whom Abélard's letter was addressed, but it may
be guessed that the writer intended it to reach the hands of
Héloïse. This actually happened, and the first and most famous
letter from Héloise to Abélard was substantially an answer to the
"Historia Calamitatum."
WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX
William of Champeaux (Gulielmus Campellensis) was born about 1070
at Champeaux, near Melun. He studied under Anselm of Laon and
Roscellinus, his training in philosophy thereby being influenced by
both realism and nominalism. His own inclination, however, was
strongly towards the former, and it was as a determined proponent
of realism that he began to teach in the school of the cathedral of
Notre Dame, of which he was made canon in 1103. In 1108 he withdrew
to the abbey of St. Victor, and subsequently became bishop of
Châlons-sur-Marne. He died in 1121. As a teacher his influence was
wide; he was a vigorous defender of orthodoxy and a passionate
adversary of the heterodox philosophy of his former master,
Roscellinus. That he and Abélard disagreed was only natural, but
Abélard's statement that he argued William into abandoning the
basic principles of his philosophy is certainly untrue.
"THE UNIVERSALS"
It is not within the province of such a note as this to discuss in
detail the great controversy between the realists and the
nominalists which dominated the philosophical and, to some extent,
the religious thought of France during the first half of the
twelfth century. In brief, the realists maintained that the idea is
a reality distinct from and independent of the individuals
constituting it; their motto, _Universalia sunt realia_, was
readily capable of extension far beyond the Church, and William of
Champeaux himself carried it to the extent of arguing that nothing
is real but the universal. The nominalists, on the other hand,
argued that "universals" are mere notions of the mind, and that
individuals alone are real; their motto was _Universalia sunt
nomina_. Thus the central question in the long controversy
concerned the reality of abstract or incorporate ideas, and it is
to be observed that the realists held views diametrically opposite
to those which the word "realism" today implies. In upholding the
reality of the idea, they were what would now be called idealists,
whereas their opponents, denying the reality of abstractions and
insisting on that of the concrete individual or object, were
realists in the modern sense.
The peculiar importance of this controversy lay in its effect on
the status of the Church. If nominalism should prevail, then the
Church would be shorn of much of its authority, for its greatest
power lay in the conception of it as an enduring reality outside of
and above all the individuals who shared in its work. It is not
strange, then, that the ardent realism of William of Champeaux
should have been outraged by the nominalistic logic of Abélard.
Abélard, indeed, never went to such extreme lengths as the
arch-nominalist, Roscellinus, who was duly condemned for heresy by
the Council of Soissons in 1092, but he went quite far enough to
win for himself the undying enmity of the leading realists, who
were followed by the great majority of the clergy.
PORPHYRY
The Introduction ("Isagoge") to the Categories of Aristotle,
Written by the Greek scholar and neoplatonist Porphyry in the third
century A.D., was translated into Latin by Boetius, and in this
form was extensively used throughout the Middle Ages as a
compendium of Aristotelian logic. As a philosopher Porphyry was
chiefly important as the immediate successor of Plotinus in the
neoplatonic school at Rome, but his "Isagoge" had extraordinary
weight among the medieval logicians.
PRISCIAN
The _Institutiones grammaticae_ of Priscian (Priscianus
Caesariensis) formed the standard grammatical and philological
textbook of the Middle Ages, its importance being fairly indicated
by the fact that today there exist about a thousand manuscript
copies of it.
ANSELM
Anselm of Laon was born somewhere about 1040, and is said to have
studied under the famous St. Anselm, later archbishop of
Canterbury, at the monastery of Bec. About 1070 he began to teach
in Paris, where he was notably successful. Subsequently he returned
to Laon, where his school of theology and exegetics became the most
famous one in Europe. His most important work, an interlinear gloss
on the Scriptures, was regarded as authoritative throughout the
later Middle Ages. He died in 1117. That he was something of a
pedant is probable, but Abélard's picture of him is certainly very
far from doing him justice.
ALBERIC OF RHEIMS AND LOTULPHE THE LOMBARD
Of these two not much is known beyond what Abélard himself tells
us. ALberic, indeed, won a considerable reputation, and was highly
recommended to Pope Honorius II by St. Bernard. In 1139 Alberic
seems to have become archbishop of Bourges, dying two years later.
Lotulphe the Lombard is referred to by another authority as
Leutaldus Novariensis.
ST. JEROME
The enormous scholarship of St. Jerome, born about 340 and dying
September 30, 420, made him not only the foremost authority within
the Church itself throughout the Middle Ages, but also one of the
chief guides to secular scholarship. Abélard repeatedly quotes from
him, particularly from his denunciation of the revival of Gnostic
heresies by Jovinianus and from some of his voluminous epistles. He
also refers extensively to the charges brought against Jerome by
reason of his teaching of women at Rome in the house of Marcella.
One of his pupils, Paula, a wealthy widow, followed him on his
journey through Palestine, and built three nunneries at Bethlehem,
of which she remained the head up to the time of her death in 404.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Regarding the position of St. Augustine (354-430) throughout the
Middle Ages, it is here sufficient to quote a few words of Gustav
Krüger: "The theological position and influence of Augustine may be
said to be unrivalled. No single name has ever exercised such power
over the Christian Church, and no one mind ever made so deep an
impression on Christian thought. In him scholastics and mystics,
popes and opponents of the papal supremacy, have seen their
champion. He was the fulcrum on which Luther rested the thoughts by
which be sought to lift the past of the Church out of the rut; yet
the judgment of Catholics still proclaims the ideals of Augustine
as the only sound basis of pbilosopby."
ABBEY OF ST. DENIS
The abbey of St. Denis was founded about 625 by Dagobert, son of
Lothair II, at some distance from the basilica which the clergy of
Paris had erected in the fifth century over the saint's tomb. Long
renowned as the place of burial for most of the kings of France,
the abbey of St. Denis had a particular importance in Abélard's day
by reason of its close association with the reigning monarch. The
abbot to whom Abélard refers so bitterly was Adam of St. Denis, who
began his rule of the monastery about 1094. In 1106 this same Adam
chose as his secretary one of the inmates of the monastery, Suger,
destined shortly to become the most influential man in France
through his position as advisor to Louis VI, and also the foremost
historian of his time. Adam died in 1123, and his successor,
referred to by Abélard in Chapter X, was none other than Suger
himself. From 1127 to 1137 Suger devoted most of his time to the
reorganization and reform of the monastery of St. Denis. If we are
to believe Abélard, such reform was sorely needed, but other
contemporary evidence by no means fully sustains Abélard in his
condemnation of Adam and his fellow monks.
ORIGEN
The ALexandrian theological writer Origen, who lived from about 185
to 254, was the most distinguished and the most influential of all
the theologians of the ancient Church, with the single exception of
Augustine. His incredible industry resulted in such a mass of
Writings that Jerome himself asked in despair, "Which of us can
read all that he has written?" Origen's self-mutilation, referred
to by Abélard, was subsequently used by his enemies as an argument
for deposing him from his presbyterial status.
ATHANASIUS
Abélard's tract regarding the power of God to create Himself was
one of the many distant echoes of the great Arian-Athanasian
controversy of the fourth century. St. Athanasius, bishop of
Alexandria, well deserved the title conferred on him by the Church
as "the father of orthodoxy," and it was by his name that the
doctrine of identity of substance ("the Son is of the same
substance with the Father") became known. Much of the life of
Athanasius was passed amid persecutions at the hands of his
enemies, and on several occasions he was driven into exile.
RODOLPHE, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS
Rodolphe, or, as some authorities call him, Rudolph or Radulph,
became archbishop of Rheims in 1114, after having served as
treasurer of the cathedral. His importance among the French clergy
is attested by the many references to him in contemporary
documents.
CONON OF PRAENESTE
Conon, bishop of Praeneste, whose real name may have been Conrad,
came to France as papal legate on at least two occasions. He
represented Paschal II in 1115 at ecclesiastical councils held in
Beauvais, Rheims and Châlons; in 1120 he represented Calixtus II at
Soissons on the occasion of Abélard's trial.
GEOFFROI OF CHARTRES
Geoffroi, bishop of Chartres, the second of the name to hold that
post, was subsequently a warm friend of St. Bernard. Abélard's high
estimate of him is fully confirmed by other contemporary
authorities.
ABBOT OF ST. MÉDARD
This abbot was probably, though not certainly, Anselm of Soissons,
who became a bishop in 1145. The chronology, however, is confusing.
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE
The confusion regarding the identity of Dionysius the Areopagite
persists to this day, at least to the extent that we do not know
the real name of the fourth or fifth century writer who, under this
pseudonym, exercised so profound an influence on medieval thought.
That he was not the bishop of either Athens or Corinth, nor yet the
Dionysius who became the patron saint of France, is clear enough.
Of the actual Dionysius the Areopagite we know practically nothing.
He is mentioned in Acts, xvii, 34, as one of those Athenians who
believed when they had heard Paul preach on Mars Hill. A century or
more later we learn from another Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, that
Dionysius the Areopagite was the first bishop of Athens, a
statement of doubtful value. In the fourth or fifth century a Greek
theological writer of extraordinary erudition assumed the name of
Dionysius the Areopagite, and as his works exerted an enormous
influence on later scholarship, it was quite natural that the
personal legend of the real Dionysius should have been extended
correspondingly.
The Hilduin referred to by Abélard, who was abbot of St. Denis from
814 to 840, was directly responsible for the extreme phase of this
extension. Accepting, as most of his contemporaries unquestioningly
did, the identity of the theological writer with the Dionysius
mentioned in Acts and spoken of as bishop of Athens, Hilduin went
one step further, and demonstrated that this Dionysius was likewise
the Dionysius (Denis) who had been sent into Gaul and martyred at
Catulliacus, the modern St. Denis. There is no evidence to support
Hilduin's contention, and the chronology of Gregory of Tours is
quite sufficient to disprove it, but none the less it was
enthusiastically accepted in France, and above all by the monks of
St. Denis.
There was, however, a persistent doubt as to the identity of the
Dionysius whose writings had become so famous. Bede, the authority
quoted by Abélard, was, of course, wrong in saying that he was the
bishop of Corinth, but anything which tended to shake the triple
identity, established by Hilduin, of the Dionysius of Athens who
listened to St. Paul, of the pseudo-Areopagite whose works were
known to every medieval scholar, and of the St. Denis who had
become the patron saint of France, was naturally anathematized by
the monks who bore the saint's name. Bede and Abélard were by no
means accurate, but Bede's inkling of the truth was quite enough to
get Abélard into serious trouble.
THEOBALD OF CHAMPAGNE
Theobald II, Count of Blois, Meaux and Champagne, was one of the
most powerful nobles in France, and by the extent of his influence
fully deserved the title of "the Great" by which he was
subsequently known. His domain included the modern departments of
Ardennes, Marne, Aube and Haute-Marne, with part of Aisne, Seine-et-Marne,
Yonne and Meuse. Furthermore, his mother Adela, was the daughter of
William I of England, and his younger brother, Stephen, was King of
England from 1135 to 1154. Theobald became Count of Blois in 1102,
Count of Champagne in 1125, and Count of Troyes in 1128. Had he so
chosen, he might likewise have become Duke of Normandy after the
death of his uncle, Henry I of England, in 1135. He died in 1152.
STEPHEN THE SENESCHAL
There is much doubt as to whether this Stephen was Stephen de
Garland, _dapifer_, or another Stephen, who was royal chancellor
under Louis the Fat. A charter of the year 1124 is signed by both
Stephen _dapifer_ and Stephen _cancellarius_. Probably, however,
the authority identifying Stephen _dapifer_ as Stephen de Garland,
seneschal of France, is trustworthy.
THE PARACLETE
Among the terms which are characteristic of, or even peculiar to,
the Gospel of St. John is that of "the Paraclete," rendered in the
King games version "the Comforter." The Greek word of which
"Paraclete" is a reproduction literally means "advocate," one
called to aid; hence "intercessor." The doctrine of the Paraclete
appears chiefly in John, xiv and xv. For example: (xiv, 16-17) "And
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter
(Paraclete) that be may abide with you for ever; even the spirit of
truth." Again: (xiv, 26) "But the Comforter (Paraclete), which is
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things." With John's words as a basis, the Paraclete
came to be regarded as identical with the Third Person of the
Trinity, but always with the special attributes of consolation and
intercession.
NORBERT OF PRÉMONTRÉ
In 1120 there was established at Prémontré, a desert place in the
diocese of Laon, a monastery of canons regular who followed the
so-called Rule of St. Augustine, but with supplementary statutes
which made the life one of exceptional severity. The head of this
monastery was Norbert, subsequently canonized. His order received
papal approbation in 1126, and thereafter it spread rapidly
throughout Europe; two hundred years later there were no less than
seventeen hundred Norbertine or Premonstratensian monasteries.
Norbert himself became archbishop of Magdeburg, and it was in
Germany that the most notable work of his order was accomplished.
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
Regarding the illustrious St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, it is
needless here to say more than that his own age recognized in him
the embodiment of the highest ideal of medieval monasticism.
Intellectually inferior to Abélard and to some others of those over
whom he triumphed, he was their superior in moral strength, in
zeal, and above all in the power of making others share his own
enthusiasms. Born in 1090, he was renowned as one of the foremost
of French churchmen before he was thirty years old; his share in
the contest which followed the death of Pope Honorius II in 1130
made him one of the most commanding figures in all Europe. It was
to him that the Cistercian order owed its extraordinary expansion
in the twelfth century. That Abélard should have fallen before so
redoubtable an adversary (see the note on Pierre Abélard) is in no
way surprising, but there can be no doubt that St. Bernard's
"persecution" of Abélard was inspired solely by high ideals and an
intense zeal for the truth as Bernard perceived it.
ABBEY OF ST. GILDAS
Traditionally, at least, this abbey was the oldest one in Brittany.
According to the anonymous author of the Life and Deeds of St.
Gildas, it was founded during the reign of Childeric, the second of
the Merovingian kings, in the fifth century. Be that as it may, its
authentic history had been extensive before Abélard assumed the
direction of its affairs. His gruesome picture of the conditions
which prevailed there cannot, of course, be accepted as wholly
accurate, but even allowing for gross exaggeration, the life of the
monks must have been quite sufficiently scandalous. It was
apparently in the closing period of Abélard's sojourn at the abbey
of St. Gildas that he wrote the "Historia Calamitatum." He endured
the life there for nearly ten years; the date of his flight is not
certain, but it cannot have been far from 1134 or 1135.
LEO IX
Leo IX, pope from 1049 to 1054, was a native of Upper Alsace. It
was at the Easter synod of 1049 that he enjoined anew the celibacy
of the clergy, in connection with which the letter quoted by
Abélard was written.