Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Fontaines, near Dijon, 1090 – August 21, 1153 in Clairvaux) was a French abbot and theologian who was the main voice of conservatism during the intellectual revival of Western Europe called the Renaissance of the 12th century. The voice of conscience, the dominating figure in the Christian church from 1125 to 1153 (Cantor 1993), he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830. Bernard is a saint of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches and was the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order.

The Second Crusade

:Main article: Second Crusade.

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Far more important was his activity in the following year, when, in obedience to the pope's command, he preached to promote the Second Crusade. The effect of his eloquence was extraordinary. At the great meeting at Vezelay, on March 21, as the result of his sermon, King Louis VII of France and his queen, Eleanor, took the cross, together with a host of all classes, so numerous that the stock of crosses was soon exhausted. Bernard continued through northern France, Flanders and the Rhine provinces, everywhere rousing the wildest enthusiasm; and at Spires on Christmas day he succeeded in persuading Conrad, king of the Romans, to join the crusade.

Related Topics:
Second Crusade - Vezelay - March 21 - Louis VII of France - Eleanor - Flanders - Spires - Christmas day - Conrad - King of the Romans

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The disastrous outcome of the crusade was a blow to Bernard, who found it difficult to understand why God would move in this way but ascribed it to the sins of the crusaders (Episte 288; de Consideratione. ii. I). The news of the defeats of the crusading host first reached Bernard at Clairvaux, where Pope Eugenius III, driven from Rome by the revolution of Arnold of Brescia, was his guest. Bernard had in March and April 1148 accompanied the pope to the council of Reims, where he led the attack on certain propositions of the scholastic theologian Gilbert de la Porrée. From whatever cause—possibly the growing jealousy of the cardinals, or the loss of prestige owing to rumours about the crusade, the success of which he had so confidently predicted—Bernard's influence, previously a danger to those suspected of heterodoxy, on this occasion had little effect.

Related Topics:
Pope Eugenius III - Arnold of Brescia - Gilbert de la Porrée

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On the news of the disaster that had overtaken the crusaders, an effort was made to retrieve it by organizing another expedition. At the invitation of Suger, abbot of St Denis, now the virtual ruler of France, Bernard attended the meeting at Chartres convened for this purpose, where he himself was elected to conduct the new crusade, the choice being confirmed by the pope. He was saved from this task, for which he was physically and constitutionally unfit, by the intervention of the Cistercian abbots, who forbade him to undertake it. Bernard was aging, broken by his austerities and by ceaseless work, and saddened by the loss of several of his early friends. His intellectual energy remained undimmed. He continued to take an active interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and his last work, the De Consideratione, shows no sign of failing power.

Related Topics:
Suger - St Denis

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