Bernard of Clairvaux

Between Cult and History

Adriaan H. Bredero

T&T Clark

Edinburgh

English translation copyright © 1996

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Authorised English translation of

Bernard van Clairvaux: tussen cultus en historie

© 1993 Kok/Agora, Kampen, the Netherlands

Originally published in the United States of America by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

This edition published under licence

from Wm. B. Eerdmans by

T&T Clark Ltd

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of T&T Clark Ltd.

ISBN 0 567 08523 6

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

I Introduction

1. Bernard as Portrayed in His Own Writings and in His Hagiography

2. The Context of the Twelfth Century

3. The Distorted View of Bernard in Our Time and the Purpose of This Study

II Saint Bernard: The Origin of His Cult in the Cistercian Order and His Canonization

1. Bernard’s Contemporary Hagiography

2. The Night Vision of Mother Aleth

3. The Earliest Version of the Vita Prima: Preparation and Writing

4. The First Request for Canonization

5. Godfried’s Text Revision of the Vita Prima

6. The Vita Secunda and Its Relationship to the Vita Prima

7. The Canonization in 1174

III Bernard as Saint in the Cistercian Hagiography of the Twelfth Century

1. The Criteria for Sainthood in the Vita Prima

2. The Silence regarding Posthumously Performed Miracles

3. From Abbot to Teacher: A Shifting Ideal of Sainthood

4. The Defense of Bernard’s Sainthood

IV The Authors of the Vita Prima

1. Geoffrey of Auxerre

2. Arnold of Bonneval

A. Did Bernard Write to Arnold from His Deathbed?

B. Arnold’s Contributions to the Vita Prima

3. William of Saint-Thierry

A. His First Contacts with Bernard

B. The Continuing Relationship between William and Bernard

C. William of Saint-Thierry’s Contribution Reevaluated

V Saint Bernard and the Historians

1. Bernard as the Ideologist of Papal Theocracy

2. The Hagiographic Tradition and the “Enlightened” Resistance against It

A. The Reception of the Vita Prima

B. Reformation, Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Restauration

3. The Chimera of the Twentieth Century

VI “Jerusalem Searched in the Light of Lamps”: Bernard in His Monastic Umwelt

1. Bernard and Cîteaux (1113–1133/34)

A. Cîteaux until 1115

B. Clairvaux besides Cîteaux

2. Bernard and Cluny

A. Bernard’s Interference in the Crisis in Cluny (1122–1126)

B. The Relationship between Bernard and Peter the Venerable

C. Nicholas of Montiéramy as Intermediary

3. Clairvaux: Its Expansion and Spiritual Significance

A. The Expansion of Clairvaux

B. The Indirect Role of Bernard in This Expansion

C. Clairvaux as the Home of the Poor in Christ...