A Source Book of Mediaeval History Part 31

At that time, the young and feeble establishment at Citeaux, under the venerable abbot Stephen,[372] began to be seriously weakened by its paucity of numbers and to lose all hope of having successors to perpetuate the heritage of holy poverty, for everybody revered the life of these monks for its sanct.i.ty but held aloof from it because of its austerity. But the monastery was suddenly visited and made glad by the Lord in a happy and unhoped-for manner. In 1113, fifteen years after the foundation of the monastery, the servant of G.o.d, Bernard, then about twenty-three years of age, entered the establishment under the abbot Stephen, with his companions to the number of more than thirty, and submitted himself to the blessed yoke of Christ. From that day G.o.d prospered the house, and that vine of the Lord bore fruit, putting forth its branches from sea to sea.

Such were the holy beginnings of the monastic life of that man of G.o.d. It is impossible to any one who has not been imbued as he with the spirit of G.o.d to recount the ill.u.s.trious deeds of his career, and his angelic conduct, during his life on earth. He entered the monastery poor in spirit, still obscure and of no fame, with the intention of there perishing in the heart and memory of men, and hoping to be forgotten and ignored like a lost vessel. But G.o.d ordered it otherwise, and prepared him as a chosen vessel, not only to strengthen and extend the monastic order, but also to bear His name before kings and peoples to the ends of the earth....

[Sidenote: Bernard prays for and obtains the ability to reap]

[Sidenote: His devotion and knowledge of the Scriptures]

At the time of harvest the brothers were occupied, with the fervor and joy of the Holy Spirit, in reaping the grain. Since he [Bernard] was not able to have part in the labor, they bade him sit by them and take his ease. Greatly troubled, he had recourse to prayer and, with much weeping, implored the Lord to grant him the strength to become a reaper. The simplicity of his faith did not deceive him, for that which he asked he obtained. Indeed from that day he prided himself in being more skilful than the others at that task; and he was the more given over to devotion during that labor because he realized that the ability to perform it was a direct gift from G.o.d. Refreshed by his employments of this kind, he prayed, read, or meditated continuously. If an opportunity for prayer in solitude offered itself, he seized it; but in any case, whether by himself or with companions, he preserved a solitude in his heart, and thus was everywhere alone. He read gladly, and always with faith and thoughtfulness, the Holy Scriptures, saying that they never seemed to him so clear as when read in the text alone, and he declared his ability to discern their truth and divine virtue much more readily in the source itself than in the commentaries which were derived from it. Nevertheless, he read humbly the saints and orthodox commentators and made no pretense of rivaling their knowledge; but, submitting his to theirs, and tracing it faithfully to its sources, he drank often at the fountain whence they had drawn. It is thus that, full of the spirit which has divinely inspired all Holy Scripture, he has served G.o.d to this day, as the Apostle says, with so great confidence, and such ability to instruct, convert, and sway. And when he preaches the word of G.o.d, he renders so clear and agreeable that which he takes from Scripture to insert in his discourse, and he has such power to move men, that everybody, both those clever in worldly matters and those who possess spiritual knowledge, marvel at the eloquent words which fall from his lips.

[Sidenote: Site selected for the new monastery]

(b)

Twelve monks and their abbot, representing our Lord and His apostles, were a.s.sembled in the church. Stephen placed a cross in Bernard's hands, who solemnly, at the head of his small band, walked forth from Citeaux.... Bernard struck away to the northward.

For a distance of nearly ninety miles he kept this course, pa.s.sing up by the source of the Seine, by Chatillon, of school-day memories, until he arrived at La Ferte, about equally distant between Troyes and Chaumont, in the diocese of Langres, and situated on the river Aube.[373] About four miles beyond La Ferte was a deep valley opening to the east. Thick umbrageous forests gave it a character of gloom and wildness; but a gushing stream of limpid water which ran through it was sufficient to redeem every disadvantage.

[Sidenote: The first building constructed]

In June, 1115, Bernard took up his abode in the "Valley of Wormwood," as it was called, and began to look for means of shelter and sustenance against the approaching winter. The rude fabric which he and his monks raised with their own hands was long preserved by the pious veneration of the Cistercians. It consisted of a building covered by a single roof, under which chapel, dormitory, and refectory were all included. Neither stone nor wood hid the bare earth, which served for a floor. Windows scarcely wider than a man's head admitted a feeble light. In this room the monks took their frugal meals of herbs and water. Immediately above the refectory was the sleeping apartment. It was reached by a ladder, and was, in truth, a sort of loft. Here were the monks'

beds, which were peculiar. They were made in the form of boxes, or bins, of wooden planks, long and wide enough for a man to lie down in. A small s.p.a.ce, hewn out with an axe, allowed room for the sleeper to get in or out. The inside was strewn with chaff, or dried leaves, which, with the woodwork, seem to have been the only covering permitted....

[Sidenote: Hardships encountered]

The monks had thus got a house over their heads; but they had very little else. They had left Citeaux in June. Their journey had probably occupied them a fortnight; their clearing, preparations, and building, perhaps two months; and thus they were near September when this portion of their labor was accomplished. Autumn and winter were approaching, and they had no store laid by. Their food during the summer had been a compound of leaves intermixed with coa.r.s.e grain. Beech-nuts and roots were to be their main support during the winter. And now to the privations of insufficient food was added the wearing out of their shoes and clothes. Their necessities grew with the severity of the season, until at last even salt failed them; and presently Bernard heard murmurs. He argued and exhorted; he spoke to them of the fear and love of G.o.d, and strove to rouse their drooping spirits by dwelling on the hopes of eternal life and Divine recompense. Their sufferings made them deaf and indifferent to their abbot's words. They would not remain in this valley of bitterness; they would return to Citeaux.

Bernard, seeing they had lost their trust in G.o.d, reproved them no more; but himself sought in earnest prayer for release from their difficulties. Presently a voice from heaven said, "Arise, Bernard, thy prayer is granted thee." Upon which the monks said, "What didst thou ask of the Lord?" "Wait, and ye shall see, ye of little faith," was the reply; and presently came a stranger who gave the abbot ten livres.

44. A Description of Clairvaux

The following is an interesting description of the abbey of Clairvaux, written by William of St. Thierry, the friend and biographer of Bernard. After giving an account of the external appearance and surroundings of the monastery, the writer goes on to portray the daily life and devotion of the monks who resided in it. In reading the description it should be borne in mind that Clairvaux was a new establishment, founded expressly to further the work of monastic reform, and that therefore at the time when William of St. Thierry knew it, it exhibited a state of piety and industry considerably above that to be found in the average abbey of the day.

Source--Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, _Bernardus Claraevallensis_ [William of Saint Thierry, "Life of St. Bernard"], Bk. I., Chap. 7. Translated in Edward L. Cutts, _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_ (London, 1872), pp. 12-14.

[Sidenote: The solitude of Clairvaux]

At the first glance as you entered Clairvaux by descending the hill you could see that it was a temple of G.o.d; and the still, silent valley bespoke, in the modest simplicity of its buildings, the unfeigned humility of Christ's poor. Moreover, in this valley full of men, where no one was permitted to be idle, where one and all were occupied with their allotted tasks, a silence deep as that of night prevailed. The sounds of labor, or the chants of the brethren in the choral service, were the only exceptions. The orderliness of this silence, and the report that went forth concerning it, struck such a reverence even into secular persons that they dreaded breaking it,--I will not say by idle or wicked conversation, but even by proper remarks. The solitude, also, of the place--between dense forests in a narrow gorge of neighboring hills--in a certain sense recalled the cave of our father St. Benedict,[374] so that while they strove to imitate his life, they also had some similarity to him in their habitation and loneliness....

[Sidenote: Marvelous works accomplished there]

Although the monastery is situated in a valley, it has its foundations on the holy hills, whose gates the Lord loveth more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of it, because the glorious and wonderful G.o.d therein worketh great marvels. There the insane recover their reason, and although their outward man is worn away, inwardly they are born again. There the proud are humbled, the rich are made poor, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them, and the darkness of sinners is changed into light. A large mult.i.tude of blessed poor from the ends of the earth have there a.s.sembled, yet have they one heart and one mind; justly, therefore, do all who dwell there rejoice with no empty joy. They have the certain hope of perennial joy, of their ascension heavenward already commenced. In Clairvaux, they have found Jacob's ladder, with angels upon it; some descending, who so provide for their bodies that they faint not on the way; others ascending, who so rule their souls that their bodies hereafter may be glorified with them.

[Sidenote: The piety of the monks]

For my part, the more attentively I watch them day by day, the more do I believe that they are perfect followers of Christ in all things. When they pray and speak to G.o.d in spirit and in truth, by their friendly and quiet speech to Him, as well as by their humbleness of demeanor, they are plainly seen to be G.o.d's companions and friends. When, on the other hand, they openly praise G.o.d with psalms, how pure and fervent are their minds, is shown by their posture of body in holy fear and reverence, while by their careful p.r.o.nunciation and modulation of the psalms, is shown how sweet to their lips are the words of G.o.d--sweeter than honey to their mouths. As I watch them, therefore, singing without fatigue from before midnight to the dawn of day, with only a brief interval, they appear a little less than the angels, but much more than men....

[Sidenote: Their manual labor]

As regards their manual labor, so patiently and placidly, with such quiet countenances, in such sweet and holy order, do they perform all things, that although they exercise themselves at many works, they never seem moved or burdened in anything, whatever the labor may be. Whence it is manifest that that Holy Spirit worketh in them who disposeth of all things with sweetness, in whom they are refreshed, so that they rest even in their toil. Many of them, I hear, are bishops and earls, and many ill.u.s.trious through their birth or knowledge; but now, by G.o.d's grace, all distinction of persons being dead among them, the greater any one thought himself in the world, the more in this flock does he regard himself as less than the least. I see them in the garden with hoes, in the meadows with forks or rakes, in the fields with scythes, in the forest with axes. To judge from their outward appearance, their tools, their bad and disordered clothes, they appear a race of fools, without speech or sense. But a true thought in my mind tells me that their life in Christ is hidden in the heavens. Among them I see G.o.dfrey of Peronne, Raynald of Picardy, William of St. Omer, Walter of Lisle, all of whom I knew formerly in the old man, whereof I now see no trace, by G.o.d's favor. I knew them proud and puffed up; I see them walking humbly under the merciful hand of G.o.d.

FOOTNOTES:

[363] In other words, it is Duke William's hope that, though not himself willing to be restricted to the life of a monk, he may secure substantially an equivalent reward by patronizing men who _are_ thus willing.

[364] Macon, the seat of the diocese in which Cluny was situated, was on the Saone, a short distance to the southeast.

[365] Berno served as abbot of Cluny from 910 until 927.

[366] That the charitable side of the monastery's work was well attended to is indicated by the fact that in a single year, late in the eleventh century, seventeen thousand poor were given a.s.sistance by the monks.

[367] The remainder of the charter consists of a series of imprecations of disaster and punishment upon all who at any time and in any way should undertake to interfere with the vested rights just granted. These imprecations were strictly typical of the mediaeval spirit-so much so that many of them came to be mere formulae, employed to give doc.u.ments due solemnity, but without any especially direful designs on the part of the writer who used them.

[368] Emerton, _Mediaeval Europe_, p. 458.

[369] Bernard was the third son.

[370] About sixty miles southeast of Troyes.

[371] Citeaux (established by Odo, duke of Burgundy, in 1098) was near Dijon in Burgundy.

[372] Stephen Harding, an Englishman, succeeded Alberic as abbot of Citeaux in 1113.

[373] Chatillon was about twelve miles south of La Ferte. The latter was fifty miles southeast of Troyes and only half as far from Chaumont, despite the author's statement that, it lay midway between the two places. The Aube is an important tributary of the upper Seine.

[374] The famous founder of the monastery of Monte Ca.s.sino and the compiler of the Benedictine Rule [see p. 83].

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CONFLICT OVER INVESt.i.tURE

45. Gregory VII.'s Conception of the Papal Authority

Hildebrand, who as pope was known as Gregory VII., was born about the year 1025 in the vicinity of the little Tuscan town of Soana. His education was received in the rich monastery of Saint Mary on the Aventine, of which one of his uncles was abbot. At the age of twenty-five he became chaplain to Pope Gregory VI., after whose fall from power he sought seclusion in the monastery at Cluny. In 1049, however, he again appeared in Italy, this time in the role of companion to the new pontiff, Leo IX. In a few years he became sub-deacon and cardinal and was intrusted with the munic.i.p.al affairs and financial interests of the Holy See. He served as papal legate in France and in 1057 was sent to Germany to obtain the consent of Empress Agnes to the hurried election of Stephen IX. While in these countries he became convinced that the evil conditions--simony, lay invest.i.ture, and non-celibacy of the clergy--which the Cluniacs were seeking to reform would never be materially improved by the temporal powers, and consequently that the only hope of betterment lay in the establishing of an absolute papal supremacy before which kings, and even emperors, should be compelled to bow in submission. In April, 1073, Hildebrand himself was made pope, nominally by the vote of the College of Cardinals, but really by the enthusiastic choice of the Roman populace. His whole training and experience had fitted him admirably for the place and had equipped him with the capacity to make of his office something more than had any of his predecessors. When he became pope it was with a very lofty ideal of what the papacy should be, and the surprising measure in which he was able to realize this ideal ent.i.tles him without question to be regarded as the greatest of all mediaeval popes.

In the doc.u.ment given below, the so-called _Dictatus Papae_, Pope Gregory's conception of the nature of the papal power and its proper place in the world is stated in the form of a clear and forcible summary. Until recently the _Dictatus_ was supposed to have been written by Gregory himself, but it has been fairly well demonstrated that it was composed not earlier than 1087 and was therefore the work of some one else (Gregory died in 1085). It conforms very closely to a collection of the laws of the Church published in 1087 by a certain cardinal by the name of Deusdedit. The doc.u.ment loses little or none of its value by reason of this uncertainty as to its authorship, for it represents Pope Gregory's views as accurately as if he were known to have written it. In judging Gregory's theories it should be borne in mind (1) that it was not personal ambition, but sincere conviction, that lay beneath them; (2) that the temporal states which existed in western Europe in Gregory's day were rife with feudal anarchy and oppression and often too weak to be capable of rendering justice; and (3) that Gregory claimed, not that the Church should actually a.s.sume the management of the civil government throughout Europe, but only that in cases of notorious failure of temporal sovereigns to live right and govern well, the supreme authority of the papacy should be brought to bear upon them, either to depose them or to compel them to mend their ways. It is worthy of note, however, that Gregory was careful to lay the foundations of a formidable political power in Italy, chiefly by availing himself of the practices of feudalism, as seen, for example, in the grant of southern Italy to the Norman Robert Guiscard to be held as a fief of the Roman see.

Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica Selecta_ (Munchen, 1889), Vol. III., p. 17.

=1.= That the Roman Church was founded by G.o.d alone.

=2.= That the Roman bishop alone is properly called universal.[375]

=3.= That he alone has the power to depose bishops and reinstate them.

=4.= That his legate, though of inferior rank, takes precedence of all bishops in council, and may give sentence of deposition against them.