of the mind ; they were at least superior to their votaries and disciples ; and in the race of superstition they attained the prize for which such numbers contended. In speech, in writing, in action, Bernard stood high above his rivals and contemporaries ; his compositions are not devoid of wit and eloquence ; and he seems to have preserved as much reason and humanity as may be reconciled with the character of a saint. In a secular life he would have shared the seventh part of a private inheritance; by a vow of poverty and penance, by closing his eyes against the visible world[1] by the refusal of all ecclesiastical dignities, the abbot of Clairvaux became the oracle of Europe and the founder of one hundred and sixty convents. Princes and pontiffs trembled at the freedom of his apostolical censure : France, England, and Milan consulted and obeyed his judgment in a schism of the church ; the debt was repaid by the gratitude of Innocent the Second ; and his successor Eugenius the Third Avas the friend and disciple of the holy Bernard. It was in the proclamation of the second crusade that he shone as the missionary and prophet of God, who called the nations to the defence of his holy sepulchre.[2] At the par- liament of Vezelay he spoke before the king ; and Louis the [a.d. ii46] Seventh, with his nobles, received their crosses from his hand. The abbot of Clairvaux then marched to the less easy conquest of the emperor Conrad : a phlegmatic people, ignorant of his [at speyer] language, was transported by the pathetic vehemence of his tone and gestures ; and his progress from Constance to Cologne was the triumph of eloquence and zeal. Bernard applauds his own success in the depopulation of Europe ; affirms that cities and castles were emptied of their inhabitants ; and computes that only one man was left behind for the consolation of seven widows.[3] The blind fanatics were desirous of electing him for
- ↑ The disciples of the saint (Vit. ima, 1. iii. c. 2, p. 1232; Vit. 2da, c. 16, No. 45, p. 1383) record a marvellous example of his pious apathy. Juxta lacum tiain Lausannensem totius diei itinere pergens, pcnitus non attendit, aut se videre non vidit. Cum enim vespere facto de eodem lacu socii colloquerentur, interrogabat eos ubi lacus illc esset ; et mirati sunt imiversi. To admire or despise St. Bernard as he ought, the reader, like myself, should have before the windows of his library the beauties of that incomparable landscape.
- ↑ Otho Prising. 1. i. c. 4. Bernard. Epist. 363, ad Francos Orientales, 0pp. torn. i. p. 328. Vit. ima, 1. iii. c. 4, torn. vi. p. 1235.
- ↑ Mandastis et obedivi . . . multiplicati sunt super numerum; vacuantur urbes et castella; et pene jam non inveniunt qucm apprehendant septcni mulieres unum virum; adeo ubique viduse vivis remanent viris. Bernard. Epist. p. 247 [leg. p. 246; ep. 247; p. 447 ap. Migne]. We must be careful not to construe pene as a substantive.
