BERNARD, SAINT, of Clairvaux, one of the most influential theologians of the middle ages, was b. at Fontaine, near Dijon, in Burgundy, 1091; became a monk of Citeaux in 1113; founded a new branch of that order at Clairvaux, in Champagne, and himself became its first abbot in 1115; died Aug. 20,1153; and was canonized by Alexander III., 1174. His ascetic life. solitary studies, and stirring eloquence, made during his lifetime, the oracle of Christendom. He was honored with the title of the "mellifluous doctor," and his writings were termed " a river of paradise." He rejected the doctrine of the immaculate conception, which had been introduced into the French church, and rose above the cruel prejudices of his age in repressing the monkish persecutions of the Jews in Germany. B. is perhaps most widely known in connection with the disas trous crusade of 1146. Charged by the pope to excite the religious zeal of the people of France and Germany, he accomplished his mission with fatally memorable success. Fields, towns, cities, and castles were in many places almost depopulated, and innumer able legions, fired by his prophetic eloquence, hurried to the east, nine tenths of whom never saw their homes again.
Regarding B. in his more spiritual aspect, we may say that his mystic, but at the same time practical, Christian doctrine was a wholesome antidote to the dry and cold scholasticism which prevailed among the churchmen of his age, although the intolerance with which he treated Abelard (see ABELARD) and Gilbert de Porree must hl reprobated.
Luther says of St. B.: "If there ever lived on the earth a God-fearing and holy monk, it was St. 13. of Clairvaux." In the course of his life, he founded 160 monasteries. His writings are exceedingly numerous. They consist of epistles, sermons, and theological treatises. Of the first, we possess 439: of the second, 340; and of the third, 12. They are all instinct with genius. though it is difficult for us now to appreciate their extraor dinary influence. The best edition of the works of St,,B. Is that of Mabillon, printed at Paris in 1690 (2 vols. fol.), reprinted at Venice in 175Q (6 vols. fol.), at Paris in 1835-10 (4 vols. 8vo), and again in 1854 (4 vols, 8vo). The monks of the reformed branch of the Cistercians. which he instituted, are often called, after him. Bernardines. Ile gave name also, in France. to the BIM of the,Cistereian order, which his sister, St, Ilumbe. line, is said to have founded.