§ 65. ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 351
Eugeirius III. had been an inmate of Clairvaux and one of Bernard's special wards. The tract de consider atione1 which, at this pope's request, Bernard prepared on the papal office and functions is unique in literature, and, upon the whole, one of the most interesting treatises of the Middle Ages. Vacandard calls it "an examination, as it were, of the pope's conscience."2 Here Bernard exhorts his spirit ual son, whom he must address as "most holy father," and whom he loves so warmly, that he would follow him into the heavens or to the depths, whom he received in poverty and now beholds surrounded with pomp and riches. Here he pours out his concern for the welfare of Eugenius's soul and the welfare of the Church under his administration. He adduces the distractions of the papal court, its endless din of business and legal arbitrament, and calls upon Eugenius to remember that prayer, meditation, and the edifica tion of the Church are the important matters for him to devote himself to. Was not Gregory piously writing upon Ezekiel while Rome was exposed to siege from the barbari ans ! Teacher never had opportunity to impress lessons upon a scholar more elevated in dignity, and Bernard ap proached it with a high sense of his responsibility.3
As a preacher, Bernard excels in the glow of his imagina tion and the fervor of his passion. Luther said, " Bernard is superior to all the doctors in his sermons, even to Augus tine himself, because he preaches Christ most excellently."4 In common with his other writings, his sermons abound in quotations from the Scriptures.5 They are not pieces of careful logical statement nor are they keen analyses of the
1 Migne, 182, 727-808.
2 " Une sorte d'examen de conscience d'un pape." Vie de S. Bernard, II. 454.
3 Bernard's view of the functions of the papacy is given in the chapter on the Papacy.
4 Bindseil, Colloquia, III. 134.
5 Deutsch, Herzog, 11.634, says Er besass eine Bibelerkenntniss wie wenige.
352 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
states of conscience, but appeals to the highest impulses of the religious nature. His discourse on the death of his brother Gerard is a model of tender treatment l as his address before Konrad was of impassioned fervor.2 The sermons on the Canticles preached within convent walls abound in tropical allegory, but also in burning love to the Saviour. One of the most brilliant of modern pulpit orators has said, " the constant shadow of things eternal is over all Bernard's ser mons."3 His discourses, so speaks his biographer Gaufrid, were congruous to the conditions of his hearers. To rustic people he preached as though he had always been living in the country and to all other classes as though he were most carefully studying their occupations. To the erudite he was scholarly; to the uneducated, simple. To the spirit ually minded he was rich in wise counsels. He adapted himself to all, desiring to bring to all the light of Christ.4
The miraculous power of Bernard is so well attested by contemporary accounts that it is not easy to deny it except on the assumption that all the miraculous of the Middle Ages is to be ascribed to mediaeval credulity. Miracles meet us in almost every religious biographer of the Middle Ages. The biographer of Boniface, the apostle of Germany, found it necessary to apologize for not having miracles to relate of him. But the miracles of Bernard seem to be vouched for as are no other mediaeval works of power. The cases given are very numerous. They occurred on Bernard's journeys in Toulouse and Italy, nearer home in France, and along the Rhine from Basel northward. William of St. Thierry, Gaufrid, and other contemporaries relate them in detail. His brothers, the monks Gerard and Guido, agree that he had more than human power. Walter Map, the
1 For translation see Morison, p. 227 sqq., who calls it, "among funeral ser mons assuredly one of the most remarkable on record."
2 See Dr. Storrs's description, p. 461 sqq.
3 Storrs, p. 388, * Vita prhna, III. 13; Migne, 183, 306.