Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

BERNARD
602
bodily senses altogether and to live entirely absorbed in
religious meditation. Sleep lie counted a loss, and com¬
pared it to death. Food was only taken to keep him from
fainting. The most menial offices were his delight, and
even then his humility looked around for some lowlier
employment. Fortunately he loved nature, and found a
constant solace in her rocks and woods. “ Trust one who
has tried it,” he writes in one of his epistles, “you will
find more in woods than in books; trees and stones will
teach you what you can never learn from masters.”
(“ Experto crede : aliquid amplius invenies in silvis quam
in libris; ligna et lapides docebunt te quod a magistris
audire non possis,” Epist. 106.)
So ardent a nature soon found a sphere of ambition for
itself. The monks of Citeaux, from being a poor and
unknown company, began to attract attention after the
accession of St Bernard and his friends. The fame of their
self-denial was noised abroad, and out of their lowliness
and abnegation came as usual distinction and success. The
small monastery was unable to contain the inmates that
gathered within it, and it began to send forth colonies in
various directions. St Bernard had been two years an
inmate, and the penetrating eye of the abbot had discovered
beneath all his spiritual devotion a genius of rare power,
and especially fitted to aid his measures of monastic re¬
form. He was chosen accordingly to head a band of
devotees who issued from Citeaux in 1115 in search of a
new home. This band, with Bernard at their head, jour¬
neyed northwards till they reached a spot in the diocese of
Langres—a thick-wooded valley, wild and gloomy, but with
a clear stream running through it. Here they settled and
laid the foundations of the famous abbey of Clairvaux,
with which St Bernard’s name remains associated in his¬
tory The hardships which the monks endured for a time
in their new abode were such as to drive them almost to
despair, and their leader fell seriously ill, and was only
rescued from what seemed impending death by the kind
compulsion of his friend William of Champeaux, the great
doctor of the age, who besought and received the direction
of Bernard for a year from his superior at Citeaux. Thanks
to his considerate friend the abbot of Clairvaux was forced
to abandon the cares of his new establishment, and in
retirement and a healthful regimen to seek renewed health.
The effect was all that could be desired, and in a few years
Bernard had not only recovered his strength, but had begun
that marvellous career of literary and ecclesiastical activity,
of incessant correspondence and preaching, which was to
make him in some respects the most influential man of
his age.
Gradually the influence of Bernard’s character began to
extend beyond his monastery. His friendship with William
of Champeaux and others gave currency to his opinions,
and from his simple retreat came by voice or pen an autho¬
rity before which many bowed, not only within his own
order but within the church at large. This influence was
notably shown after the death of Pope Honorius II. in
1130. Two rival popes assumed the purple, each being
able to appeal to his election by a section of the cardinals.
Christendom was divided betwixt the claims of Anacletus
II. and Innocent II. The former was backed by a strong
Italian party, and drove his adversary from Borne and even
from Italy. Innocent took refuge in France. 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. With reluctance Bernard obeyed
the call, and from the depths of seclusion was at once
plunged into the heart of the great contest which was afflict¬
ing the Christian world. The king and prelates put the
question before him in such a way as to invite his decision
and make him arbiter. After careful deliberation he gave
his judgment in favour of Innocent, and not only so, but
from that time forward threw himself with characteristic
fervour and force into the cause for which he had declared.
Not only France, but England, Spain, and Germany were
won to the side of Innocent, who, banished from Borne, in
the words of St Bernard, was “ accepted by the world.”
He travelled from place to place with the powerful abbot
by his side, who also received him in his humble cell at
Clairvaux. Apparently, however, the meanness of the
accommodation and the scantiness of the fare (one small
fowl was all that could be got for the Pope’s repast), left
no wish on the part of Innocent or his retinue to continue
their stay at Clairvaux. He found a more dainty recep¬
tion elsewhere, but nowhere so powerful a friend. Through
the persuasions of Bernard the emperor took up arms for
Innocent; and Anacletus was driven to shut himself up
in the impregnable castle of St Angelo, where his death
opened the prospect of a united Christendom. A second
anti-pope was elected, but after a few months retired from
the field, owing also, it is said, to St Bernard’s influence.
A great triumph was gained not without a struggle, and
the abbot of Clairvaux remained master of the ecclesiastical
situation. No name stood higher in the Christian world.
The chief events which fill up his subsequent life attest
the greatness of his influence. These were his contest
with the famous Abelard, and his preaching of the second
crusade.
Peter Abelard was twelve years older than Bernard, and
had risen to eminence before Bernard had entered the gates
of Citeaux. His first intellectual encounter had been with
Bernard’s aged friend William of Champeaux, whom he
had driven from his scholastic throne at Paris by the
superiority of his dialectics. His subsequent career, his
ill-fated passion for Heloise, his misfortunes, his intellectual
restlessness and audacity, his supposed heresies, had all shed
additional renown on his name; and when a council was
summoned at Sens in 1140, at which the French king and
his nobles and all the prelates of the realm were to be pre¬
sent, Abelard dared his enemies to impugn his opinions. St
Bernard had been amongst those most alarmed by Abelard’s
teaching, and had sought to stir up alike Pope, princes,
and bishops to take measures against him. He did not
readily, however, take up the gauntlet thrown down by the
great hero of the schools. He professed himself a “ stripling
too unversed in logic to meet the giant practised in every
kind of debate.” But “all were come prepared for a
spectacle,” and he was forced into the field. To the
amazement of all, when the combatants met and all seemed
ready for the intellectual fray, Abelard refused to proceed
with his defence. After several passages considered to be
heretical had been read from his books he made no reply,
but at once appealed to Borne and left the assembly.
Probably he saw enough in the character of the meeting to
assure him that it formed a very different audience from
those which he had been accustomed to sway by his sub-
tilty and eloquence, and had recourse to this expedient to
gain time and foil his adversaries. Bernard followed up
his assault by a letter of indictment to the Pope against
the heretic. The Pope responded by a sentence of con¬
demnation, and Abelard was silenced. Soon after he found
refuge at Cluny with the kindly abbot, Peter the Venerable,
who brought about something of a reconciliation betwixt him
and Bernard. The latter, however, never heartily forgave
the heretic. He was too zealous a churchman not to see
the danger there is in such a spirit as Abelard’s, and the
serious consequences to which it might lead.
In all things Bernard was enthusiastically devoted to the
church, and it was this enthusiasm which led him at last
into the chief error of his career. Bad news reached.