Abelard asked for a public discussion with Bernard; the latter showed his opponent's errors with such clearness and force of logic that he was unable to make any reply, and was obliged, after being condemned, to retire. The legacy of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to 20th-century Christians, as multifaceted as it is, lies most significantly in his profound human psychology of self-esteem and self-awareness grounded in the mercy and love of God. St. Malachi would gladly have taken the Cistercian habit, but the sovereign pontiff would not give his permission. for less than $4.25/month. She was a woman distinguished for her piety, but died while Bernard was still a boy. Monks and nuns give themselves to this reformation under the guidance of the monastic rule and the leadership of experienced spiritual directors. Ironically, it had been Abelard himself who helped Heloise develop her Rule for female monastics, and Heloise would in turn preserve for posterity some of her mentor's teachings, which would otherwise be lost to history as a result of Bernard's success in having Abelard's writings burned. French saint and one of the most powerful men of his time, Bernard of Clairvaux led the Cistercian order of White Monks, who adhered to the strictest form of Benedictinism, to its greatest growth and the height of its influence. His legacy to 20th century Christians, as multifaceted as it is, lies most significantly in the profound human spiritual psychology of self-esteem and self-awareness grounded in the mercy and love of God. He opposed the teachings of Peter Abelard and Henry of Lausanne and defended devotion to the Virgin Mary. 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. In June 1145, at the invitation of Cardinal Alberic of Ostia, Bernard traveled in the south. He died on August 20, 1153. He had a great taste for literature and devoted himself for some time to poetry. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). His zeal to involve himself in the great affairs of the Church, however remained undimmed. Bernard also became a major force in the battle against the more obvious heretics of southern France. Even with all his other duties and interests, he was first and foremost a monk who lived in accordance with the strictest rules. A conservative in theological matters, he forcefully opposed the early scholastic movement of the twelfth century, denouncing its great exponent, Peter Abelard, forcing him into retirement from his teaching position at the University of Paris, and later convicting him of heresy. St. Bernard was born in 1090 and joined the Cistercians at age 22. Although Rome supported Anacletus, France, England, Spain and Germany declared for Innocent. Tens of thousands heard his powerful preaching, and he personally attracted and helped many hundreds of men to follow a call to monastic life. St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Subscribe to CT magazine for full access to the. (1090-1153). When the crusade (which began in 1147 and ended in 1149) failed in its aim to return the Turkish East to Christian hands, Bernard found the defeat difficult to accept and blamed it on the lack of faith and commitment of the crusaders. Below is the article summary. Catholic Almanac. August 20, 2010. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary(Crescent Books, 1994). 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". In the year 1119, Bernard was present at the first general chapter of the order convoked by Stephen of Citeaux. In 1128 Bernard was chosen to be the secretary to the Council of Troyes, where he was praised for his writings on the rules of the new order of the Knights Templar. While he discouraged the persecution and pogroms against Jews in the Rhineland in 1146, he also supported the crusades against the Turks. Delaney, J.J. "The voice of conscience, the dominating figure in the Catholic Church from 1125 to 1153" [1], his authority helped to end the schism of 1130. Certainly he was a fantastic organiser and possessed a charisma that few could deny. The third perfumed anointing is the overflowing of mercy and compassion that comes from maturity in the spiritual life. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia: Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. The French churchman St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was a Cistercian monk and founder and abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux. Deputations of the bishops of Armenia solicited aid from the pope, and the King of France also sent ambassadors. Not a brilliant intellect, but a powerful exponent of humble faith, for Bernard, theology was not about the abstract search for truth. On the second occasion, the two worked together to orchestrate the drama of Bernard's preaching of the Second Crusade, with Louis and Eleanor taking the cross in response. "It is not fitting" he said "that noisy and troublesome frogs should come out of their marshes to trouble the Holy See and the cardinals". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, rev. Bernard expanded upon Anselm of Canterbury's role in transmuting the sacramental ritualness in Christianity of the Early Middle Ages into a new, more personally held faith, with the life of Christ as a model and a new emphasis on the Virgin Mary. He would be the first to insist that he not take himself too seriously. But Western Europe's "man of the twelfth century," without doubt or controversy . Edessa had fallen into the hands of the Turks, and Jerusalem and Antioch were threatened with similar disaster. In the first part he proves himself innocent of the invectives against Cluny, which had been attributed to him, and in the second he gives his reasons for his attack upon averred abuses. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. She has kissed his feet in repentance, kissed his hand in spiritual growth as the bridegroom guides her toward maturity, and now in confidence, she kisses his mouth and joins him in the sweet embrace of love (sermons 18). William Marshall The Flower of Chivalry, Traditional history tells us that Hugues de Payens and Geoffrey de St. Omer arrived at the palace of King Baldwin II with the desire to defend Christian pilgrims from the attack of the infidels. He dedicated his life to the poor and those in need, which led him to found two hospices on the border of the Swiss-Italian Alps. He now shared in the most important ecclesiastical discussions, and papal legates sought his counsel. In 1112 Bernard convinced about 30 other young noblemen, including friends, relatives, and four of his brothers, to enter the monastery of Citeaux, which had been founded in 1098 and whose members rigorously followed the Benedictine Rule. Britannica does not review the converted text. Larousse Biographical Dictionary (Larousse, 1994). When, however, Bernard had opened the case at Sens in 1141, Abelard appealed to Rome. Yet neither can we denigrate ourselves because the process of repentance and self-discovery is made possible by, and makes possible, the healing of the sin-ravaged image and likeness of God as it is bathed in the compassion and mercy of God. "Bernard," wrote the sixteenth century Catholic humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam in his Art of Preaching, "is an eloquent preacher, much more by nature than by art; he is full of charm and vivacity and knows how to reach and move the affections.". The question appears to be easily answered for in the small Templar type Church in St Bernards birthplace there is a marble plaque that states the Church was built by St Bernards mother in thanks for the safe return of her husband from the Crusade. How and why St Bernard became involved in the formation of the Knights Templar may never be fully understood. The third is that of compassion and mercy. Bernard of Clairvaux is a living illustration of a turbulent phase in Western Christendom. At the time of the French Revolution St Bernards skull was taken for safekeeping to Switzerland, eventually finding its way back to Troyes. These cookies do not store any personal information. Abelard, meanwhile, had collapsed at the abbey of Cluny on his way to defend himself at Rome. Bernard became even more powerful in 1145 with the election of Pope Eugenius III, a former pupil of Bernard and a Cistercian monk. he pope confirmed the judgment of the council, Abelard submitted without resistance, and retired to Cluny to live under Peter the Venerable, where he died two years later. Woman of the century! He also wrote the most celebrated medieval book on mysticism, the belief that God exists and that people could know this through personal religious experiences. No matter how far we progress in spiritual maturity, we remain aware of our shortcomings and failures. St. Bernard was eminently endowed with the gift of miracles. St. Bernard of Clairvaux was a French abbot who lived in the 1000s-1100s. hymns: Many hymns ascribed to Bernard survive, e.g.. Evans, G.R., trans., Jean LeClercq, author, Ewert Cousins, author. One result of Bernard's fame was the growth of the Cistercian order. Returning to Molesmes, he left the government of the new abbey to St. Alberic, who died in the year 1109. Simply because God is, we love him. A group of eight influential cardinals, seeking to stave off the influence of powerful Roman families, quickly elected Bernard's former pupil, Cardinal Gregory Papareschi, a proponent of the Cistercian reforms, as Innocent II. At the invitation of Suger, abbot of St. Denis, now the virtual ruler of France, Bernard attended a meeting at Chartres in 1150 convened for this purpose. In 1118, the Monastery of the Three Fountains was founded in the Diocese of Chalons; in 1119, that of Fontenay in the Diocese of Auton (now Dijon) and in 1121, that of Foigny, near Veirins, in the Diocese of Lain (now Soisson), Notwithstanding this prosperity, the Abbot of Clairvaux had his trials. Bernards ideas and writings are accessible almost 900 years later because they are universal in style, humaneness, and natural imagery, and are simple and biblical in content. In 1133, the year of the emperor's first expedition to Rome, Bernard was in Italy persuading the Genoese to make peace with Pisa, since Innocent had need of both. Opera omnia Sancti Bernardi Claraevallensis, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Bernard_of_Clairvaux&oldid=1063311, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, farm and agriculture workers, Gibraltar, Queens' College, Cambridge, "A Templar Knight is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He begins with self-love because that is where we find ourselves as human beings, indeed, self-hatred is unnatural. Three years later, St. Stephen sent the young Bernard, at the head of a band of monks, the third to leave Citeaux, to found a new house at Vallee d'Absinthe, or Valley of Bitterness, in the Diocese of Langres. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, despite once referring to himself as a "noisy and troublesome frog", lived a life packed full of intrigue and influence. lxvi. The discussion was warm on both sides. He defended the rights of the Church against the encroachments of kings and princes, and recalled to their duty Henry Archbishop of Sense, and Stephen de Senlis, Bishop of Paris. Updates? He also preached in Flanders and the Rhine provinces. Towards the end of 1134, he made a second journey into Aquitaine, where William X had relapsed into schism. The king, Louis the Fat, espoused his cause, and having summoned a council of archbishops and bishops, he laid his commands on the holy abbot of Clairvaux to be present also and give the benefit of his advice. Innocent, denounced in Rome as an "anti-Pope" was forced to flee north. Bernard encountered problems at first because of his expectation that the other monks would follow his stringent regime of prayer, silence, plainness, simple diet, self-denial, and manual labor. Even more important was his activity in the following year, 1146, when Bernard was asked by Louis VII of France of France whether it would be right to raise a crusade. The pope commissioned Bernard to preach a new Crusade and granted the same indulgences for it which Urban II had accorded to the first. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. French translation with notes of the complete works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Born to Burgundy nobility in 1090, Bernard was the third of the aristocratic couple's seven children. Bernard persuaded the populace not to murder the Jews of Europe on their way to the Holy Land, for which he is remembered as a truly "righteous Gentile" by the Jews of the Rhineland. It is a fact that the Templars venerated St Bernard from that moment on, until their own demise in 1307. From that moment a strong friendship sprang up between the abbot and the bishop, who was professor of theology at Notre Dame of Paris, and the founder of the cloister of St. Victor. Priest. The marriage of Louis and Eleanor, however, would eventually come to an end and she would go on to become the wife of Henry II of England and the mother of two English kings: Richard I and John. This he did, almost certainly, at the behest of Bernard and possibly as a result of promises he had made to this end at the time Bernard showed him the support which led to the Vatican. uCatholic. Of a noble family in Burgundy, Bernard was a tall, handsome, slender youth endowed with . Bernard's resolution to become a monk was not shaken, however. It was this general chapter that gave definitive form to the constitutions of the order and the regulations of the "Charter of Charity" which Pope Callixtus II confirmed 23 December, 1119. In these years both Clairvaux and Rome, the centre of gravity of medieval Christendom, focussed upon Bernard. He even stayed at Clairvaux itself, a humble abode so far as its buildings were concerned, but having a strong reputation for piety, in contrast to Rome's fame for pomp and corruption. Abelard's treatise on the Trinity had been condemned in 1121, and he himself had thrown his book into the fire. Precisely because they recognize their own limits and weaknesses, monks and nuns place the direction of their lives in the hands of others, who draw on the wealth of collective experiencetraditionto act as guides on the journey from the land of unlikeness. St Bernard enters history in an indisputable sense at the age of 23 years, when together with a very large group of his brothers, cousins and maybe other kin, (probably between 25 and 30) he rode into the abbey of Citeaux, Dijon. In the year 1128, Bernard assisted at the Council of Troyes, which had been convoked by Pope Honorius II, and was presided over by Cardinal Matthew, Bishop of Albano. However, if a heretic refused to see the error of his ways, Bernard considered that "he should be driven away, or even a restraint put upon his liberty" (Serm. He could be irascible and domineering at times, but seems to have been generally venerated and well liked by those around him. The dominant voice of Christian conscience in the second quarter of the twelfth century C.E., his authority was decisive in ending the papal schism of 1130. Copyright 1989 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine.Click here for reprint information on Christian History. Bernard passed into Germany, and the miracles which multiplied almost at his every step undoubtedly contributed to the success of his mission. Although he was not considered a scholar, he wrote more than 300 sermons and at least 500 epistles, or letters. In On Loving God Bernard outlines a journey from self-love to self-love that meets us where we are and takes us where God wants us to go. Loving God for the sake of what he has done for us is, however, less than perfect. St Bernard died in Clairvaux on August 20th 1153, a date that would soon become his feast day, for St Bernard was canonised within a few short years of his death. The disastrous outcome of the Crusade was a blow to Bernard, who found it difficult to understand why God would move in this way. Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. The same year Bernard was again at the Council of Reims at the side of Innocent II, whose oracle he was; and then in Aquitaine where he succeeded for the time in detaching William, Count of Poitiers, from the cause of Anacletus. Last Updated: Article History Table of Contents Clairvaux Abbey Discover the religious community of Clairvaux and the influence of St. Bernard Clairvaux, village, northeastern France, in Aube dpartement, Champagne-Ardenne rgion, east-southeast of Troyes. A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. The papal residence at the Castel Sant'Angelo, however, was held by Anacletus, and he was supported by the Norman King Roger II of Sicily. During the absence of the Bishop of Langres, Bernard was blessed as abbot by William of Champeaux, Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, who saw in him the predestined man, servum Dei. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The bride asks for a kiss from the bridegroom out of confidence, no longer out of fear. During his youth, he did not escape trying temptations, but his virtue triumphed over them, in many instances in a heroic manner, and from this time he thought of retiring from the world and living a life of solitude and prayer. Christian monastic reformer and mystical writer. His feast day is August 20. Cummings, John. His nemesis this time was the greatest intellect of the age, Peter Abelard. Michael R. Heinlein 4 min read 'Many of those who are humiliated are not humble.' Regarded as the last of the Fathers of the Church, St. Bernard (1090-1153) is truly an ecclesial renaissance man. Bernard accompanied Innocent to parley with Lothair II, the Holy Roman Emperor, who would become a key political supporter of Innocent's cause. Bernard reserved judgment until Pope Eugenius III soon commanded him to preach the Second Crusade. He was born in Fontaines-les-Dijon in . In our opinion past researchers have generally failed to credit St Bernard with the pivotal role he played in the planning, formation and promotion of the infant Templar Order. This man had been a noviciate of St Bernard at Clairvaux and was, in all respects, St Bernards own man. Bernard praises it in his "De Laudibus Novae Militiae". Declining to believe that he and the Pope could have been wrong to involve Christendom in the first place, he ascribed the Crusade's failure to the sins of the crusaders and other Christians themselves (Episte 288; de Consideratione. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. After Bernard's arrival with his 30 companions in 1114, the small community at Cteaux grew so rapidly that it was soon able to send out offshoots. Bernard had opposed Abelard since 1121, when he and others had succeeded in forcing the brilliant scholar from his post at the University of Paris. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font down will be disabled. Believing himself at last secure in his cloister Bernard devoted himself with renewed vigour to the composition of those pious and learned works which have won for him the title of "Doctor of the Church". The pope and King Louis VII of France asked Bernard to rally Europe to the Second Crusade. His austerity was so extreme that William of Champeaux, the bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne who had ordained Bernard in 1115, became concerned and requested that he take better care of himself. lxiv). Bernard is considered the founder of the Cistercian order and the last of the . Bernard's works have been reprinted in many editions and he remains popular among both Protestants and Catholics. Bernard, the third of a family of seven children, six of whom were sons, was educated with particular care, because . Bernard belongs to this tradition. This is exemplified by the short verse he once wrote. In 1120 Bernard composed his first work "De Gradibus Superbiae et Humilitatis" and his homilies which he entitles "De Laudibus Mariae". "De amore Dei" wherein St. Bernard shows that the manner of loving God is to love Him without measure and gives the different degree of this 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 principles of St. Augustine; "Book of Considerations", addressed to Pope Eugenius III; "De Officiis Episcoporum", addressed to Henry, Archbishop of Sens.His sermons are also numerous: "On Psalm 90, 'Qui habitat'" (about 1125); "On the Canticle of Canticles".
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