§ 65. ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 349
Bernard's attack upon the conventual establishment of Cluny was born of mistaken zeal. If of the two men Peter the Venerable appears to much better advantage in that con troversy, it was different when it came to the treatment of the Jews. Here Peter seems to have completely laid aside his mild spirit, while Bernard displays a spirit of humaneness and Christian charity far beyond his age. In the contro versy with Abselard, a subject which belongs to another chapter, the abbot of Clairvaux stands forth as the church man who saw only evil in views which did not conform strictly to the doctrinal system of the Church.
Bernard was a man of his age as well as a monastic. He fully shared the feelings of his time about the Crusades. In 1128, at the Synod of Troyes, his voice secured recognition for the Knight Templars, "the new soldiery." The ignoble failure of the Second Crusade, which he had preached with such warmth, 1146, called forth from him a passionate la ment over the sins of the Crusaders, and he has given us a glimpse into the keen pangs he felt over the detractions that undertaking called forth.1 The ill issue was not his fault. He himself was like Moses, who led the people towards the Holy Land and not into it. The Hebrews were stiff-necked. Were not the Crusaders stiff-necked also and unbelieving, who in their hearts looked back and hankered after Europe? Is it any wonder that those who were equally guilty should suffer a like punishment with the Israelites? To the taunt that he had falsely represented himself as having delivered a message from God in preaching the Crusade, he declared the testimony of his conscience was his best reply. Eugenius, too, could answer that taunt by what he had seen and heard. But, after all was said, it was a great honor to have the same lot with Christ and suffer being unjustly con demned (Ps. 69 : 9).
When, at a later time, Bernard was chosen at Chartres to 1 De consideratione, II. 1; Migne, 182, 743.
350 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
lead another Crusade, the choice was confirmed by the pope, but the Cistercians refused to give their consent.1
In the reigns of Innocent II. and Eugenius III. Bernard stood very near the papacy. He did more than any other single individual to secure the general recognition of Inno cent II. as the rightful pope over his rival, Anacletus II. He induced the king of France to pronounce in favor of In nocent. Bent on the same mission, he had interviews with Henry I. of England at Chartres, and the German emperor at Liege. He entertained Innocent at Clairvaux, and ac companied him to Italy. It was on this journey that so pro found were the impressions of Bernard's personality and miracles that the people of Milan fell at his feet and would fain have compelled him to ascend the chair of St. Ambrose. On his third journey to Rome, in 1138, 2 Bernard witnessed the termination of the papal schism. In a famous debate with Peter of Pisa, the representative of Anacletus, he used with skill the figure of the ark for the Church, in which Innocent, all the religious orders, and all Europe were found except Anacletus and his two supporters, Roger of Sicily and Peter of Pisa. But an attempt, he said, was being made to build another ark by Peter of Pisa. If the ark of Inno cent was not the true ark, it would be lost and all in it. Then would the Church of the East and the Church of the West perish. France and Germany would perish, the Span iards and the English would perish, for they were with In nocent. Then Roger, alone of all the princes of the earth, would be saved and no other.3
1 Bernard refers to this election in a letter to Eugenius, Ep., 256. " Who am I," he writes, "to establish camps and march at the head of armedmen ?"
2 It was on this journey that St. Bernard performed the miracle which has a humorous side. While he was crossing the Alps, the devil broke one of his carriage wheels. Bernard repaired the damage by commanding the devil to take the place of the broken wheel, which he did, and the wagon moved on again to the traveller's comfort.
3 Vitaprima, II. 7, 45; Migne, 185, 294 sq.