Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

French monk and religious leader

• Born: 1090
• Birthplace: Fontaines-les-Dijon, Burgundy (now in France)
• Died: August 20, 1153
• Place of death: Clairvaux, Champagne (now in France)

Bernard epitomized the monastic ideal and served as adviser and critic to kings, popes, bishops, abbots, and other leading figures in Western Europe.

Early Life

Bernard of Clairvaux (klehr-voh) was born the son of Tescelin le Sor, a rich and valiant Burgundian knight. Aleth, his mother, was a dutiful wife; her saintly behavior had a considerable impact on Bernard. At an early age, Bernard was enrolled in a church school at Châtillon-sur-Seine, where he impressed everyone with his love of learning. He mastered the trivium and became somewhat familiar with the quadrivium. After his mother's death, he was left with the difficult choice of a vocation in the secular world, perhaps that of a knight like his father, or in the Church, which had been his mother's preference. Bernard was tall and attractive with a noble countenance, but he was too delicate and sensitive to become a warrior. Thus, he was destined from before birth, according to one account, to become a monk.

There followed a period of preparation. In a short time, Bernard's charismatic personality influenced many others to eschew the secular world. Around 1113, Bernard and about thirty companions were admitted to the Cistercian monastery of Cîteaux, which was renowned for its austerities. Not only was this an important step in Bernard's life, but it was also a significant event in the history of the fledgling Cistercian order .

Life's Work

During his novitiate, Bernard earned the admiration and wonder of all with his ascetic behavior. In the meantime, Cîteaux had grown so rapidly that it became necessary to found new colonies. In 1115, although only twenty-four years old, Bernard was selected to lead one of these expeditions. He and twelve companions took up residence in the Valley of Wormwood and began construction of the monastery known as Clairvaux. Cîteaux's newest daughter prospered under Bernard's guidance, but the rigors of office, coupled with an inclination toward extreme asceticism, ruined his health and brought him close to death. At the behest of Guillaume de Champeaux, bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, Bernard was relieved of his abbatial duties for a year to regain his strength.

At the end of the year, Bernard returned to his monastic office, but he never fully recovered. At times he had such difficulty digesting his food that he had to vomit into a pit dug for the purpose near his seat in choir. Pale and emaciated, his appearance was at once forbidding and ethereal. Bernard's happiest moments were spent in his cell praying, fasting, studying, and writing. During infrequent intervals of leisure, Bernard wrote a prodigious number of sermons and letters. The sermons were written on spiritual subjects such as humility, pride, the love of God, the Virgin Mary, and church reform, while the letters were addressed to kings, popes, bishops, monks, and others on a multitude of subjects.

Bernard became the most famous monk of his day, preaching a doctrine that called on ecclesiastics and laypeople alike to repent of their sins, embrace Christ, and live a monastic life. Many were won to monasticism, the Cistercian order in particular. Even the famous, such as the brother of the French king, sought the peace of the cloister. So eloquent was Bernard that mothers hid their children lest they be led away by the monastic Pied Piper. As the order grew in numbers, new houses were founded in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, and Scandinavia. In 1135, Clairvaux found it necessary to relocate closer to the Aube River to permit additional growth.

Bernard would have been quite happy to restrict himself to the management of Clairvaux and its daughter houses, yet the great abbot lived in close proximity to a violent and chaotic world whose repercussions sometimes reached Clairvaux. Never a shrinking violet, Bernard became involved in nearly all the important political and ecclesiastical issues of Western Europe during a period of thirty years. Sometimes he advised kings. On other occasions, he took issue with their policies, especially those that threatened the freedom of the Church. Louis VI of France was reproved for intervening in the affairs of the bishop of Paris and for appointing a prelate as seneschal, while his son, Louis VII , was censured many times for inappropriate behavior.

Nor was the Church spared Bernard's whip. Among other issues, Bernard was determined to carry forward the ecclesiastical reform movement begun in the eleventh century by Pope Gregory the Great.

Convinced that Cistercian monasticism was superior to all other forms, Bernard never ceased to castigate others, especially the Cluniacs, who, he believed, had lost their religious zeal and become spiritually decadent. In 1137, he prevented a Cluniac from becoming bishop of Langres, gaining the office for one of his own Cistercian monks. In such matters, Bernard was often intransigent and self-righteous, but he was also capable of great warmth. Although Bernard and Peter the Venerable, the abbot of Cluny, had their differences, they became good friends.

Bernard was also concerned about those who had become enamored of the world and its pleasures. Suger, the abbot of Saint-Denis and adviser to both Louis VI and Louis VII, was scolded for his great wealth and earthly concerns. Bernard found the secular clergy and even the peasantry guilty of similar offenses. Even the pope did not escape Bernard. In De consideratione (Treatise on Consideration, 1641), composed late in his life and addressed to Eugenius III, a former disciple, Bernard reminded the pontiff of his Christian responsibilities and exhorted him to reform a corrupt Curia.

When he was not lecturing popes and kings, Bernard lashed out at those who threatened the orthodoxy and unity of the Church. One particularly difficult issue that occupied much of his time was the schism of 1130. In that year, on the death of Honorius II, two popes were elected by disputing factions within the College of Cardinals. Innocent II was eventually compelled to flee Italy when his adversary, Anacletus II, became violent. At the Council of Étampes, convened by Louis VII, Bernard threw his support to Innocent, who, he believed, had been properly elected and was the more worthy of the two. Over the next seven years, Bernard worked to win recognition of Innocent, traveling throughout Europe, crossing the Alps three times in one winter, meeting and corresponding with the most important political and ecclesiastical figures in Europe. With the death of Anacletus in 1137, Bernard's choice was finally enthroned, and the schism was ended.

Nevertheless, there was little rest for the weary monk. In 1139, Bernard's close friend, William of Saint-Thierry, informed him that Peter Abelard, one of the most brilliant intellectuals of the age, was teaching a dangerous theology that substituted reason for revelation. Abelard also espoused heretical ideas about the Trinity; among other things, he said that the Holy Spirit was not coequal with the Father and the Son. It was with great reluctance and possibly some trepidation that Bernard left Clairvaux to confront Abelard at the Council of Sens in 1140. Bernard refused to debate the issues, preferring instead a stratagem that condemned Abelard's entire approach. Humiliated, Abelard withdrew from the encounter, fell ill, and died several years later at Cluny. Bernard won, but he has been severely criticized through the ages for his narrow-minded approach to the debate.

Although Bernard successfully quashed Abelard's heresy, there was much work to be done. In 1145, Europe received the shocking news that Edessa had fallen to the Muslims. The event was of special interest to Bernard. In his youth, the First Crusade had captured Jerusalem. Later, in 1128, at the Council of Troyes, Bernard drew up a charter for the Knights Templar, a military-monastic group whose chief concern was the defense of Palestine. Thus Bernard emerged from the cloister to prepare for what would be his last major battle. In 1146, he preached the Second Crusade at Vézeley and then spent considerable time and energy promoting the venture in France and Germany. As a result, both Louis VII of France and Conrad III of the Holy Roman Empire took up the cross. The Crusade eventually failed, and Bernard's popularity suffered greatly. Nevertheless, in spite of failing health, Bernard remained very active in his last years, and he even dreamed of leading another expedition to liberate the Holy Land. He died at Clairvaux on August 20, 1153.

Significance

For more than thirty years, Bernard of Clairvaux was the spokesperson for Western Christendom. Although his first love was the contemplative life of the monastery, he was frequently summoned by the outside world. He was a friend and adviser to kings, popes, bishops, and abbots. Nothing that might impact adversely on the Church escaped his notice. Many times he left his monastery to reprove those who threatened the Church truculent feudal magnates, wealthy prelates, heretics, and the infidels who threatened Palestine.

His impact on the Cistercian order, monasticism, the Church, indeed, Western Europe, is inestimable. When he and his monks settled at Clairvaux, there were only five Cistercian houses. By the time of his death in 1153, there were 343 abbeys, 68 of which had been founded directly from Clairvaux. Without a doubt, Bernard's charismatic personality was the single most important factor in the rapid growth of the order. Moreover, his humility, ascetic lifestyle, and devotion to God earned for him the admiration of both ecclesiastics and laypersons. He was, in many ways, a miracle worker, and in 1174, less than twenty-five years after his death, he was canonized.

Bibliography

Balzani, Count Ugo. “Italy, 1125-1152.” In The Cambridge Medieval History/Middle Ages. Vol. 5. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1948. In a chapter from one of the most comprehensive multivolume surveys of the Middle Ages, the author discusses Bernard’s role in the schism of 1130 and the Second Crusade.

Butler, Edward Cuthbert. Western Mysticism: The Teaching of Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard on Contemplation and the Contemplative Life. Vol. 3. Rev. ed. London: Kegan Paul, 1999. Essays on and a selection of classic writings of Saint Bernard and other mystics, discussing contemplation, the concept of mysticism, mystical theology, spiritual practice, and more.

Daniel-Rops, Henri. Bernard of Clairvaux. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1964. Examines Bernard’s life and the history of the Cistercian order from his death to the present. An excellent introductory work.

Evans, G. R. The Mind of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1983. An advanced study and chronology of Bernard’s intellectual life and life in general. Focuses primarily on his education, preaching, sermons, and theology.

Hoyt, Robert S., and Stanley Chodorow. Europe in the Middle Ages. 3d ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976. A good general history of the Middle Ages. Included is a brief sketch of Bernard’s life that considers his influence on literature, art, and ideas.

Hufgard, M. Kilian. Bernard of Clairvaux’s Broad Impact on Medieval Culture. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2001. Art-historical analysis of Bernard’s views on art, beauty, and goodness, appreciations for which he was accused of lacking.

Knowles, David. Christian Monasticism. Reprint. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977. An excellent introduction to monasticism, ranging from the earliest Christian monks to the modern world. Bernard’s impact on the Cistercian movement is discussed briefly in a chapter on monastic expansion.

Lawrence, C. H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. New York: Longman, 1984. A brief history of the monastic movement from the desert hermits to the friars, including a valuable chapter on Bernard and the Cistercian order.

Painter, Sidney, and Brian Tierney. Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1475. 4th ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. An excellent general history of Western Europe, with scattered references to Bernard. Includes a brief overview of his career with reference to his impact on the Cistercian order.

Strayer, Joseph R. Western Europe in the Middle Ages. 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1974. A brief survey of medieval civilization with a number of references to Bernard, including a short biography.

Tamburello, Dennis E. Bernard of Clairvaux: Essential Writings. New York: Crossroad, 2000. Covers the historical context of the time and includes Bernard’s writings on “divine grace and human freedom,” “conversion,” “the love of God,” “union with God,” and “spirituality and leadership,” and ends with a discussion of Bernard’s legacy.