BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX ON LOVING GOD

Bernard of Clairvaux on Loving God

Bernard of Clairvaux on Loving God

Bernard of Clair Vaux was born in 1090 and he was the third kid of a noble family in Burgundy. His father was the Tescelin Saur, lord of Fontaine-lès-Dijon and Montbard Aleth was his mother. After enjoying a broad cultural education in the canons of Chatham in 1112 (according to other authors in 1113), he entered the monastery of Citeaux, which was originally founded in 1098, that was reformed as a monastery, the Benedictine, and who was known for his extraordinary rigor. Bernardo's thirty relatives and friends had persuaded him to do the same step. By the summer of 1115, he was sent to the head of twelve monks to found another monastery, Clairvaux, which until his death in 1153, was the abbot. Exaggerated asceticism made him sick so badly that in 1118 he was forced to retire for one year in a hut on the grounds of the convent to recuperate. Even for the rest of life, he will be plagued by severe stomach pain. In the same year began the long series of about seventy other foundations of monasteries. (Bouwsma, 1988)

Since 1128 is increasingly involved in matters of ecclesiastical policy. At the Council of Troyes, it had it as secretary a year later and served as a mediator in a dispute between Louis the Fat and the bishop of Paris, while in 1129/30 served as mediator between Louis VI and Archbishop of Sens. When, from 1130, two popes, Innocent II and Anacleto II, claimed, against each other, the right to sit on the throne of Peter, Bernard took off to Innocent II. At the Council of Etampes, in 1130, conquered the French bishops to Louis VI and his candidate. King Lothair and the German clergy soon joined after this decision, and in 1130/31 Bernard persuaded the king of England to recognize Innocent II. In March 1131 they met the Pope and King Lothair, who wanted to use the crisis of the papacy to induce the Pope to the abolition of the Concordat of Worms and regain the right of investiture of bishops. But the energetic intervention of Bernard prevented the realization of this desire. In 1133 Bernard was invited by the Pope, on a long journey through Italy. It served as a pleasure in the war between Pisa and Genoa and was present at ...