(b Fontaines-lès-Dijon, 1090; d Clairvaux, 1153). French theologian, reformer and mystic. He was educated at Châtillon by the canons of St Vorles. In 1112 or 1113 he entered Cîteaux, and in 1115, in obedience to his abbot, St Stephen Harding, he left it to found Clairvaux, which was to become one of the most famous houses of the Cistercian order. Bernard was its first abbot, ruling over it until his death. Many of his written works were designed for delivery in the chapter house before his own monks. His influence, however, extended far beyond the confines of Clairvaux. He travelled throughout Europe, from Speyer to Palermo and from Madrid to Bordeaux, crossing and recrossing the Alps and the Pyrenees. He made active contributions to synods and councils, notably at Troyes (1128), Pisa (1135), Sens (1140) and Reims (1148). At Troyes he was responsible for establishing the Order of the Knights Templar and he may have been the author of their Rule. He supported Pope Innocent II against the antipope Anacletus II at the disputed election after the death of Honorius II in 1130.
An ardent defender of the faith, Bernard engaged in doctrinal disputes with Pierre de Bruys, Henri de Lausanne, Arnold of Brescia, Gilbert de la Porée and finally with Abelard, whom he condemned at the Council of Sens (1140). By his presence and moral support Bernard preached the Second Crusade (1147–9) and was deeply disappointed when it failed.
The secret of Bernard’s far-reaching influence lay in his saintliness and in the strength of his compelling personality. His contribution was essentially that of a monk. Under his leadership the Cistercian order came to be recognized throughout Europe, its austerely reformed type of monasticism contrasting sharply with the style of its great rival, Cluny. The differences are highlighted in the correspondence between Bernard and his friend Peter the Venerable, which called forth Bernard’s famous Apologia ad Guillelmum Abbatem.
Bernard’s writings include sermons, treatises, a few miscellaneous minor works and a vast output of letters (ed. in Mabillon; James, 1953; and Leclercq, 1957–77). The minor works include an Office for the feast of St Victor, with its important covering letter to the abbot and monks of Montiéramey, a hymn in honour of St Malachy and the tiny prologue to the Cistercian antiphoner (c1147) – all three pointing to Bernard’s concern for an authentic style of worship. ‘The chant’, he wrote in his letter to Abbot Guy, ‘should be quite solemn, nothing sensuous or rustic. Its sweetness should not be frivolous. It should please the ear only that it might move the heart, taking away sorrow and mitigating wrath. It should not detract from the sense of the words but rather make it more fruitful’. The so-called Tonale Sancti Bernardi and the two chant treatises connected with the reformed antiphoner and gradual (all ed. Mabillon, clxxxii) are of doubtful authorship but are associated with Bernard’s reforms (see Tonary, §6(iv)).
Bernard played a major role in the Cistercian liturgical reform. The founding fathers had sought a ‘pure’ tradition in what they considered to be the best source available – the Metz tradition for the music of the Office). A second stage in this reform came between 1140 and 1147 with the setting up of a commission of experts under Bernard’s presidency. Bernard was probably responsible for the textual revisions, based on clear editorial principles: the avoidance of unnecessary duplication; the removal of apocryphal or theologically debatable texts; and the provision of greater literary unity within a piece, for example, a responsory and its verse would preferably be chosen from the same biblical source, not from two different sources.
From the musical point of view the ‘Bernardine reform’ achieved three objectives. The corrupt repertory used by the early Cistercians was brought into line with what was being sung at the time in Europe. The age-old melodies were made to conform to recent theory; for example, melodies that exceeded the requisite range or were unduly florid were modified or transposed; modally ambiguous melodies were re-composed and confined within the straitjacket of a textbook mode; musica ficta was avoided. Finally, the reformers introduced many recently composed pieces in a more popular vein.
Bernard was canonized in 1174 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830.
J. Mabillon, ed.: S. Bernardi opera omnia (Paris, 1667) [complete Lat. edn.]; repr. with addns in PL, clxxxii–clxxxv
Vita prima, PL, clxxxv, 225–455
Vita secunda, PL, clxxxv, 469–524
W. Williams: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Manchester, 1935/R)
B.S. James, ed. and trans.: The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux (London, 1953, 2/1967)
R. Monterosso: La riforma musicale di S. Bernardo (Cremona, 1955)
B.S. James: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: an Essay in Biography (London, 1957)
J. Leclercq, C.H. Talbot and H.M. Rochais, eds.: Sancti Bernardi opera (Rome, 1957–77; Eng. trans., 1970–) [critical edn.]
K.-W. Gümpel: Zur Interpretation der Tonus-Definition des Tonale Sancti Bernardi (Mainz, 1959)
I. Vallery-Radot: Bernard de Fontaines, abbé de Clairvaux (Tournai, 1963, 2/1990)
J. Leclercq: St Bernard et l’esprit cistercien (Paris, 1966)
C. Waddell: ‘The Origin and Early Evolution of the Cistercian Antiphonary: Reflections on Two Cistercian Chant Reforms’, The Cistercian Spirit: a Symposium, ed. M.B Pennington (Spencer, MA, 1970), 190–223
C. Waddell: ‘The Early Cistercian Experience of Liturgy’, Rule and Life: an Interdiscipliniary Symposium, ed. M.B. Pennington (Spencer, MA, 1971), 77–116
M. Huglo: Les tonaires: inventaire, analyse, comparaison (Paris, 1971)
C. Waddell: ‘An Aspect of the Chant Reform called “Bernardine”’, Liturgy, vi (1972), 81–95
F.J. Guentner, ed.: Epistola S. Bernardi de revisione cantus cisterciensis et tractatus scriptus ab auctore incerto cisterciense: Cantum quem cisterciensis ordinis ecclesiae cantare, CSM (1974)
G.R. Evans: The Mind of St Bernard of Clairvaux (Oxford, 1983)
MARY BERRY