From the New Monastery to the Valley of Light, 1115–1124

This chapter examines how Saint Bernard founded Clairvaux Abbey. Bernard's desire was to save souls by bringing them to the monastery and keeping them there. He confided that his only concern was “to have a mother's love for every soul.” The theme of motherhood returns time and again in Bernard's writings and shows his attention to his brothers. In the anecdotes about the beginnings of Clairvaux, it is possible to see who Bernard was becoming. The isolated figure of the New Monastery was now father abbot and mother caregiver of a community of men. He expected his foundation to grow and prosper, but he was also afraid of failure. Like every monastic founder from the Desert Fathers onwards, Bernard faced the possibility that his way of life would come to nothing. But Bernard was attached to a movement where the individual monastery gained sustenance from a network. Bernard takes his place here as part of a monastic institution.

The World after the Schism: One Thing after Another, 1140–1145

This chapter studies how, in the years that followed the final departure of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux from Italy, he encountered what might be called “one damn thing after another,” the chaos that makes up the very stuff of history and human life. Probably during Lent of 1139, he faced his first challenge. His friend and later biographer, William of Saint-Thierry, sent him a brief treatise attacking the theology of Peter Abelard. Sometime between May of 1139 and June of 1140, Bernard composed a fairly lengthy treatise attacking what he considered to be the heresies of Abelard, concerning the doctrines of the Trinity and the Redemption. He addressed it to no less a person than Pope Innocent II, the very man from whom he temporarily had broken off contact because of Innocent's refusal to reinstate Cardinal Peter of Pisa. The Abelard affair thus forced Bernard to get back in touch with Rome and abandon the solitude he must have sought at Clairvaux after the death of his brother Gerard.

Victory and Defeat: A Conflicted Church, 1136–1140

This chapter explores how the autumn and early winter of 1135–36 provided sufficient time for Saint Bernard to give his first sermons on the Song of Songs at Clairvaux and also to familiarize himself and come to terms with the brothers' ambitious building program. But just when he may have felt he had returned to the routine of monastic life, he was called back to Italy. His companion now, as previously, was his brother Gerard, Clairvaux's capable cellarer whom Bernard felt he needed at his side rather than leaving him behind to deal with the material affairs of the monastery. In March or April of 1137 at Viterbo, Gerard became severely ill. Bernard's description of events emphasizes how important it was for him to restore Gerard to his monastic community so that he could die there. During the last year of Gerard's life, Bernard must have lived in fear that he soon would lose the man whose company and guidance had shepherded him since childhood. Just as the papal schism was coming to a seemingly happy end, Bernard was facing the end of the world that had made him.

Monastic Commitment and Church Politics, 1124–1129

This chapter details how, until he left for Italy in the early 1130s and became involved in resolving the papal schism, Saint Bernard spent most of his time at his monastery of Clairvaux. The years before he dedicated himself to defending the papacy might at first seem rather tame by comparison with what came afterwards. But a closer look especially at the letters composed at this time shows that Bernard was already committing himself to causes that had nothing to do with Clairvaux or even with Cistercian monasticism. In 1127 or 1128, Bernard drew up a statement about how bishops should behave. It is possible to see the beginning of the polemic against abuse of office in the Church. What is remarkable here, however, is not Bernard's concern with the state of the Church. It is his public statement about what was happening in his own Cistercian Order.

Business as Usual in Preparing for Death

This chapter shows how the last years of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, from 1150 until his death on 20 August 1153, were spent in a flurry of activities that provide little indication that he was a dying man. Indeed, he was still involving himself in matters outside the Cistercian Order, so his commitment hardly reflects the situation of someone in the process of dying. Bernard seems to have suffered from some kind of gastric disturbance, perhaps a result of his ascetic way of life. It is something of a wonder that a man who for years had experienced stomach cramps and could hardly consume food or drink, could continue to be active for such a long time. Bernard refused to make any concessions to his own weakness and went ahead with his concerns, dictating one letter after another. One can assume that for the most part he had to remain at Clairvaux during these years, except for a final excursion that brought him to the city of Metz in what today is the north of France. Bernard was tireless, willing, perhaps obsessed with responding to requests for help from other churchman.

A Saint’s Origins

This chapter traces the origins of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The site of Bernard's birth is a hill on the outskirts of Dijon, the capital of Burgundy. He was the third of seven children born to Tescelin Sorus and Aleth of Montbard. Bernard's father and brothers took their place in the world in order to serve secular lords, especially the Duke of Burgundy. Later in life, Bernard seems to have shown no aversion to the military persuasion. He helped invent a way of life that combined monasticism and knighthood. Praying at night and fighting during the day became, thanks to Bernard, a commendable religious vocation. Bernard's attachment to knights, in the hope of their becoming monks, is also shown in a story about how some young knights found their way to Clairvaux. Meanwhile, the story of Bernard's participation in the mystery of Christ's birth indicates that as a child he took part with great intensity in the liturgical year and made Christian symbols an integral part of his life.

Fifteen Questions about Bernard: The Background for My Portrait

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Toward Reformation of Church and Monastery

This chapter reflects on how Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was born in the aftermath of the first medieval reformation of the Church and grew up in a world where royal, ducal, and other secular figures had to respect the prerogatives of the Church. His actions in defending what he found to be ecclesiastical interests reflect his attachment to this reformation, even though he by no means was extreme or radical in his view of how Christian society should function. Like other church figures, he took it for granted that there would be a great amount of cooperation between ecclesiastical and secular powers. They could strengthen each other, and only in extraordinary situations was it necessary for churchmen to distance themselves from kings and other lay authorities. In 1129, Bernard joined with other Cistercian abbots, including his father abbot, Stephen Harding, and addressed King Louis VI of France concerning a quarrel between the king and the bishop of Paris, Stephen of Senlis. This is a classic case of the old regime, where king and churchmen supported each other, in the face of a new world where the Church reformed itself and kept secular authority at a distance.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who almost defies characterization. Monk, abbot, adviser of kings and popes, author of some of the finest Latin prose to emerge from the Middle Ages, he was a man of many talents. At first glance he can seem abrasive, overconfident, and almost arrogant. But as this book shows, he is a point of departure for European culture in its search for faith, meaning, and community. Any history of Western Europe in the twelfth century has to include Bernard and his almost frenetic activities. Bernard deserves reevaluation as a person and participant in the history of Christian life and spirituality. His inner life and external actions illuminate his own time and provide a context for ours. In addition to his sophisticated theology, his moving sermons, and his influence among kings and popes, Bernard can plausibly be considered the first European. Through his vision and talent for inspiring people to work together, he helped build Christianity's first continent-wide monastic order, the Cistercians, whose monasteries extended from Ireland to Sicily and Norway.

Healing a Divided Church, 1130–1135

This chapter describes how in the first years of the 1130s, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux became a European figure, involving himself in the ecclesiastical and secular politics of his time and influencing them to a greater or lesser degree. He dedicated himself to solving the perilous situation in which there were two popes at the same time in the Western Church. By 1138, he had been to Italy a number of times and had traversed what today is France. These journeys must have been grueling for an individual with gastric problems and with a firm commitment to the prayer life of the monastery. At the same time as Bernard missed the daily office, he was separated from the brothers he loved in Clairvaux, both his brothers in the flesh and his spiritual brethren, who looked to him for spiritual guidance and inspiration.