Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to Cardinal Ivo

Abstract

Background: Bernard, the immensely influential abbot of Clairvaux and the formidable adversary of Abelard’s last years, was born at Fontaine-les-Dijon in 1090 and died at Clairvaux in 1153.¹ The son of a noble Burgundian family, at twenty-one he became a monk of Citeaux, then in the early stages of its expansion as a center of reform in Benedictine monastic life. A few years later, Bernard was sent by the abbot, Stephen Harding, to found the new daughter-house at Clairvaux that was to play so important a role in the expansion of the Cistercian movement. During the schism in the Church caused by the long struggle for the papal office between Innocent II (Gregory Papareschi) and Anacletus II (Peter Pierleoni), Bernard was a most powerful supporter of Innocent’s claim. This was ultimately successful when the schism, beginning in 1130, ended with the death of Anacletus in 1138. It was during this period that the abbot of Clairvaux achieved the eminence, and the power, not only in France, but in Christendom as a whole, that he was to enjoy for the rest of his life.