(1091-1153)
[Illustration: St. Bernard.]
In 1091, when the career of the Cid was drawing to a close in Spain, a
yet greater Christian champion was born in France; greater, if only in
this, that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal. That the work was
good in itself, we think will be clear from a perusal of the life of the
warrior-monk, St. Bernard.
His birthplace was Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy; his father,
Tecelin, a knight of honorable reputation, and so absorbed in his
profession that he was compelled to leave the care of his seven sons, of
whom Bernard was the third, to his wife Aleth. She was a pious and
gentle woman, strictly attached to the duties of religion, and anxious
for the spiritual rather than the temporal welfare of her children, whom
she therefore devoted to the cloister. A dream, it is said, had
indicated to her the future fame of her third son, before his birth. He
rapidly displayed signs of possessing no ordinary character. His
education was undertaken by the then celebrated school of Chantillon and
the University of Paris, where he remained some years, actively pursuing
his studies. His mother died soon after his return home, and he then
proceeded to fulfil her wish, which accorded with his own, of becoming a
monk. His father and friends endeavored to dissuade him from this step,
but instead, he persuaded five of his brothers and twenty-five other
friends to join him in the career which he had chosen. His father and
remaining brothers subsequently followed him, and the whole family took
monastic vows. Bernard did not select for his abode one of those
monasteries whose wealth and splendor had corrupted the intention of
their founders, and softened the severity of the original discipline.
His motive was truly religious, and took the superstitious form then
almost inseparable from earnest piety. He and his comrades entered the
poor convent of Citeaux, near Dijon, where the rules of life enjoined by
St. Benedict in the sixth century were observed with great rigor.
Frequent watchings, fasts, bleedings, and scourgings, for the purpose of
mortifying the body; abstinence from conversation or laughter; habits of
perpetual devotion, laborious exertion, and humble obedience to the
abbot, were the main features of the system. Bernard undertook the
duties of his office with such incessant zeal, and displayed such
amazing control over his appetites, that he seriously weakened his
health, but at the same time enlarged his reputation to such an extent
that the convent became overcrowded with the number of those whom he had
attracted thither. He was therefore appointed, after three years'
residence at Citeaux, to head a colony of monks which was to be fixed in
the valley of Clairvaux--a desolate though beautiful spot in the
bishopric of Langres. The tears of their brethren accompanied the
departure of Bernard and the twelve others who composed the band. It was
in the year 1115, and at the age of twenty-six, that he was made Abbot
of Clairvaux. His appearance at the consecration is described as that of
a corpse rather than a man, so emaciated with the rigors of devotion had
he become. He had frequent visions, perhaps from his weakness, in one of
which he imagined that the Virgin Mary herself appeared to him. The
privations of the members of his little colony were most severe. The
season for sowing had been spent in building the convent, and when the
winter came they were reduced to little better than starvation. Coarse
bread and beech-leaves steeped in salt were their only food. This scanty
sustenance, together with the strict adherence to the Benedictine rule,
in which Bernard still persisted, so shattered his health, that the
bishop of the diocese, who was his personal friend, at last interfered,
and released him from the active duties of abbot. But as soon as a brief
respite had restored his strength, Bernard renewed his self-mortifying
practices. A fresh attack of illness followed, and he was obliged
permanently to relax his habits. In after-years he lamented the error
into which his early enthusiasm and mistaken zeal had led him, the
effects of which greatly marred his future influence for good.
Though debarred from laboring in his own sphere, Bernard's energetic
mind would not let him rest, and he began from this time to exercise
the power which his reputation for sanctity had brought him, in
political life. He well knew the nature of the position which he was
thus enabled to take, and did not shrink from its perils. "Bernard!
wherefore art thou here on earth?" is said to have been his
constant self-appeal. Poor and unarmed, a priest or monk in those
days had nothing wherewith to oppose the tyranny of the powerful
nobility, save the weapons of religion and intellect. How
righteously they could be used we shall see in the case of Bernard.
In repeated instances he interposed the weight of his authority
between the anger of a king or noble and the weakness of a subject
or tenant, and scarcely ever failed in his object. One of the most
remarkable examples of this kind was his conduct toward the Count of
Aquitaine. This nobleman, a man of immense strength of will no less
than body, and violent and despotic beyond his fellows, having
espoused the cause of one rival Pope against another, dismissed from
their sees several excellent bishops in his territory who were
adverse to his views, and supplied their places without regard to
fitness of character. Bernard, having twice remonstrated in vain,
after the last interview held a solemn mass in the church near the
count's castle, at which that nobleman, as excommunicated, could not
be present, but stood outside. The consecration of the wafer was
duly performed, and the blessing bestowed upon the people, when
Bernard suddenly made his way through the crowd, bearing in his hand
the Host on its paten (or plate), and confronted the astonished
count as he stood at the church door amid his soldiery. With pale,
stern face, and flashing eyes, the daring monk thus addressed the
haughty chief: "Twice have the Lord's servants entreated you, and
you have despised them. Lo! now the blessed Son of the Virgin--the
Head and Lord of that Church which you persecute--appears to you!
Behold your Judge, to whom your soul must be rendered! Will you
reject Him like His servants?" A hush of awe and expectation among
the bystanders followed these words, broken by a groan from the
conscience-stricken count, whose imagination was filled with such
lively terror of Divine wrath that he fell fainting to the ground.
Though raised up by his men, he again fell speechless. Bernard,
seizing the opportunity, called to his side one of the deposed
bishops, and on the count's recovery ordered that the kiss of
reconciliation should be bestowed, and the exile restored. The
effect of this scene was not transient, for the proud spirit had
been subdued in the count's heart, and he performed penance for his
offences by going on pilgrimage.
[Illustration: The Vision of St. Bernard.]
Various other instances of Bernard's boldness in rebuking kings, nobles,
and even Popes, might be adduced. His most remarkable appearance as a
political peace-maker was in the dispute which took place after the
death of Pope Honorius II., as to the succession to the popedom. Two
rival factions at Rome contended for the claims of separate candidates:
one a wealthy and worldly, the other a learned and pious, cardinal.
Bernard, as we may suppose, supported the cause of the latter, who took
the name of Innocent II. At the council of Etampes, where Louis VI. of
France and his nobles were assembled, the monk's eloquence prevailed
over all the arguments of diplomacy, and the influence of France was
pledged to the side of Innocent. Bernard next engaged aid from Henry I.,
of England, and Lothaire, the Emperor of Germany. He then proceeded to
Milan, where the party of the rival Pope, Anaclete, and his supporter,
Conrad, Duke of Suabia, Lothaire's antagonist, was strongest. Bernard's
fame was so great, and the imaginations of those who beheld him so
fascinated by his force of will, that on his way the sick were carried
forth to meet him, and numerous miracles were said to be wrought by the
touch of his garments. In Milan, through his eloquence, Anaclete's party
was completely vanquished, and the Milanese so impressed that they
offered to displace their archbishop in Bernard's favor. But on this and
other occasions he steadily refused any such rank, content to live and
die in a sphere where he could be more useful, if less exalted. He
returned to France, after a lengthened absence, in 1135, meeting on his
way with a royal reception.
He was once more absorbed in the duties of his office, as Abbot of
Clairvaux, when again summoned to Italy by Innocent II., to oppose the
power of Roger, the Norman King of Sicily, whose aid Anaclete had
obtained. Bernard first passed into Germany, and successfully mediated
between the emperor and the Suabian princes, inducing the latter to
relinquish their rebellion. Lothaire was then prevailed upon to aid
Innocent by force of arms, while Bernard proceeded to employ force of
intellect in the same service. He first won over by his arguments many
of Anaclete's chief supporters, and then accepted a challenge which King
Roger threw out, to dispute publicly in the Court of Salerno as to the
claims of the rival Popes, with Anaclete's champion, Cardinal Pietro di
Pisa. At this public contest Bernard not only confuted, but converted,
the cardinal, and reconciled him to Innocent. With Roger, Bernard was
not so successful, and a battle ensued between the armies of the
contending Popes. Innocent was captured, but contrived to make favorable
terms with Roger; and a peace was agreed to, which was finally ratified
by the death of Anaclete, in 1138. Another anti-pope having been set up,
Bernard used his personal influence with the pretender, and induced him
to yield. Thus the schism in the Church was healed, and the good abbot
returned to Clairvaux.
In 1146 he was mainly instrumental in promoting the second crusade. News
reached Europe that, two years before, the Christian state of Edessa
(which, as we have already seen, was founded by Baldwin, brother of
Godfrey de Bouillon) had, through the weakness of its government, fallen
into the hands of the Sultan of Bagdad, and Jerusalem was again in
peril. Inflamed with enthusiasm, Bernard stirred up the hearts of his
countrymen to zeal in the cause of the Cross. Louis VII., of France, was
readily persuaded to undertake the crusade as a penance for his crimes;
but the Emperor Conrad, of Germany, was indisposed to exertion; and to
him, therefore, Bernard hastened, rousing the people of France and
Germany as he travelled through. The frozen reluctance of the monarch
could not withstand the fiery earnestness of the monk. Conrad is said to
have dissolved into tears at the discourse, and eagerly accepted the
cross which was offered. While in Germany Bernard showed his liberality
of thought--rare in those days--by sternly rebuking the ignorance of a
monk who was denouncing the Jews as the cause of the recent calamities.
At the council of Vezelay (in Burgundy), held in 1146, Bernard's
eloquence was as exciting in its influence on his hearers as that of
Pope Urban had been on a previous occasion. As the speaker, at the end
of his oration, held up the cross which was to be the badge of the
enterprise, Louis VII. threw himself at the feet of his subject, and the
whole assembly thronged round him, shouting the old war-cry, "It is
God's will!" Bernard distributed to thousands of eager hands all the
crosses which he had brought with him; and finding these insufficient
for the demand, took off the Benedictine robe which he wore, and tore it
into cross-shaped pieces. So impressed were the chiefs of the crusading
army with his power over the people, that at a subsequent assembly they
even offered the command of the expedition to him--an unwarlike monk.
He declined the post on the ground of unfitness, but had he accepted it,
the issue of the crusades might have been different from what it was.
His authority would at least have kept in check the discords, perfidies,
and excesses to which he, probably with justice, afterward attributed
the failure of the enterprise. From these causes, together with a fatal
incapacity on the part of the French and German generals, the second
crusade resulted in nothing but the wholesale massacre of the Christian
armies by the Turks. Bernard, who had predicted the success of the
expedition, was deeply distressed at the unfortunate result; the more
as, with great injustice, the weight of popular indignation fell upon
him and seriously damaged his influence. This disappointment, however,
did not discourage him, and only served to concentrate his attention for
the rest of his life on the more immediate duties of his calling.
These he had never neglected, even while immersed in religious politics.
By advice and example he greatly reformed the discipline of monastic
life. He continually preached in his own convent; and, either personally
or through agents, is said to have founded upward of sixty monasteries
in alliance with Clairvaux. Among them the Hospice of Mount St. Bernard,
in Switzerland, has distinguished itself by loving deeds worthy of its
founder. Bernard was an eminent theologian, both in theory and practice,
and many of his works are extant. They disclose very forcibly his strong
intellect and warm heart. Many of his opinions were most liberal for his
age, and he rejected several tenets, on which the Roman Catholic Church
has since insisted, with a decision which would have ranked him among
heretics had he lived a few centuries later. He manifested,
nevertheless, a want of freedom in his conduct toward the great Abelard,
who in that age represented the true Protestant spirit of inquiry into
the received doctrines of the Church. Against this daring thinker
Bernard unjustifiably employed the weight of authority which he
possessed, to silence what he deemed a dangerous boldness of opinion.
Toward Abelard personally, however, he displayed nothing but generous
and respectful courtesy, even in the heat of controversy; and it is
satisfactory to know that a cordial interchange of kindly feeling passed
between these two eminent men long before their deaths.
Many of Bernard's wise and good deeds are recorded, which cannot be
noticed here. We may refer to but one, which greatly influenced the
world for centuries after his death; namely, the sanction and aid which
he gave to the establishment of the Knight-Templars, a body of
soldier-priests, who devoted their lives to the preservation of the
Holy Places and the protection of pilgrims. Had they faithfully adhered
to the statutes which he drew up for their conduct, the exhibition of
zeal which they were designed to make might have been as blessed to
Christendom as their arrogance was cursed.
A few years before his death, Bernard had the gratification of seeing
one of his own disciples raised to the papal chair, as Pope Eugenius
III. The new pontiff recognized his master's authority no less than
before his accession, and Bernard's counsel and influence were
repeatedly used in his behalf. But the over-activity of the good abbot
too soon decayed the slender strength which his firm will had wrested,
as it were, from death in a hand-to-hand struggle that lasted for more
than forty years. Always sickly, frequently reduced to the brink of the
grave, yet perpetually at work, his constitution gave way in 1155, at
the age of sixty-three. His last act was worthy of his life. He was on a
dying-bed when a discord broke out between the nobles and the burghers
of the town of Mentz. Bernard rose, and once more entered the arena of
strife with the olive-branch of peace in his hand. The proud barons and
the angry citizens listened humbly to his gentle words, and shrank from
the mild glances of those eyes which his biographers scarcely ever
mention without calling _dove-like_. The turbulence of passion was
hushed, and Bernard returned to die. The filial tears of his disciples
at Clairvaux, and the regrets of all the nation, followed him to the
grave. About twenty years after his death a decree of canonization
awarded him the title of Saint, which, considering how it has been
disgraced by unholy bearers, will not seem so fitly to recognize his
merit as that name which the reverence of the Church has further
bestowed on him--the _last_ of the Fathers.