Who Was Bernard of Clairvaux?
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), the Cistercian abbot, mystic, and one of the most influential churchmen of the twelfth century, played a central role in the early history of the Knights Templar. He championed the new Order, helped to draw up its Rule, and wrote one of the most influential documents in Crusading history, the treatise De laude novae militiae — In Praise of the New Knighthood. Without Bernard’s support, the Templars would probably have remained a small, obscure brotherhood of French knights.
This article is a brief biography of Bernard. It is a companion to Bernard de Clairvaux and the Templar Rule and to The Founding of the Order.
Early Life and Cistercian Vocation
Bernard was born in 1090 at Fontaines-lès-Dijon, the son of Tescelin le Saur, a knight of the Duchy of Burgundy. He was the third of seven children, and he was educated at the School of Saint-Vorles in Châtillon-sur-Seine. As a young man, he showed exceptional intellectual gifts, and he was expected to pursue a career at the court of Hugh, Count of Champagne.
In 1112, however, Bernard made a decision that would change the course of his life. He entered the new Cistercian monastery of Cîteaux, taking the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. He was followed by a large group of his relatives and friends, including his uncle André de Montbard (who would later become one of the original Templars).
In 1115, Bernard was sent out to found a new Cistercian house, the Abbey of Clairvaux, in the County of Champagne. The abbey was in a wilderness area, and the early years were difficult. Bernard and his monks lived in great austerity, and Bernard himself was often ill. The abbey, however, soon attracted a large number of vocations, and Clairvaux became one of the most important monasteries in Europe.
For the broader context, see The Founding of the Order.
The Champion of the Templars
Bernard became involved with the Knights Templar through his connection to the Count of Champagne, who was the principal patron of both the Cistercians and the new Templar brotherhood. In 1127, when Hugues de Payens traveled to France to seek support for the new Order, he was a guest of the Count of Champagne, and the visit was coordinated with Bernard at Clairvaux.
Bernard, who had a long-standing interest in the Crusade and the Holy Land, became an immediate supporter of the Order. It was largely through Bernard’s influence that the Council of Troyes was convened in January 1129, and the Order was formally recognized and given a Rule.
The story of Bernard’s involvement with the Order is told in detail in Bernard de Clairvaux and the Templar Rule.
De Laude Novae Militiae (c. 1132)
The most famous product of Bernard’s involvement with the Templars was his treatise De laude novae militiae, written around 1132. The treatise, dedicated to Hugues de Payens, is a defense of the new kind of knighthood embodied in the Templars and is one of the foundational documents of the Crusading movement.
In the De laude, Bernard argued that the Templar knight was a new kind of warrior, who had renounced the world to fight for the cause of Christ. The treatise was widely read in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and became one of the most important pieces of Crusading propaganda.
The De laude is also famous for its strict discipline: Bernard explicitly condemned the knights of his day as vain, greedy, and violent, and he held up the Templars as the model of true Christian knighthood.
The symbolism of the treatise is examined in The Templar Cross and Mantle and in The Meaning of Beauseant.
The Second Crusade (1147–1149)
In 1145, Pope Eugenius III, a former Cistercian monk and a former student of Bernard, called for a new Crusade, the Second Crusade, in response to the fall of Edessa to the Muslim leader Imad al-Din Zengi. The Pope asked Bernard to preach the Crusade, and Bernard did so with great enthusiasm, traveling across France and Germany and winning recruits by the thousands.
The Second Crusade ended in disaster. The army of the French king Louis VII and the German king Conrad III was badly beaten in Asia Minor, and the joint French-German army in the Holy Land failed to capture Damascus. The failure of the Crusade was a serious blow to Bernard’s reputation, and he died in 1153 with the disillusionment of the Second Crusade still heavy on his mind.
The Templars were deeply involved in the Second Crusade, and the disaster reinforced the Order’s military role in the East. The story of the Templars in the Crusades. See The Knights Templar in the Holy Land.
The Later Years and Death
In his later years, Bernard was increasingly involved in the major ecclesiastical disputes of his day. He intervened in the papal schism of 1130 (between Pope Innocent II and Antipope Anacletus II), in the controversy over the teachings of Peter Abelard and Gilbert de la Porrée, and in the affair of the Vézelay (a dispute over the election of the abbot of the great Burgundian abbey).
Bernard also became increasingly involved in the politics of the Latin East. He corresponded with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, with the Grand Master of the Templars, and with various Latin Christian rulers in the East.
Bernard died on August 20, 1153, at the Abbey of Clairvaux, at the age of 63. He was canonized in 1174 by Pope Alexander III, and he became one of the most famous saints of the Catholic Church, the Doctor Mellifluus — the “Honey-Sweet Doctor.”
Bernard’s Legacy
Bernard’s legacy is vast. As a theologian, he was one of the great mystics of the medieval Church, and his writings on the Virgin Mary, on the love of God, and on the spiritual life are still widely read today. As a preacher, he was famous for his eloquent sermons, and his Sermons on the Song of Songs are masterpieces of medieval spirituality. As a politician, he was a major figure in the ecclesiastical politics of his day, and he helped to shape the papacy and the Cistercian order for centuries.
For the Templars, however, Bernard is best remembered as the champion of the Order. He helped to found the Order, wrote its Rule, defended it in print, and recruited its early members. The Order venerated him as its patron and protector, and his feast day (20 August) was celebrated in the Order’s liturgical calendar. His name became permanently associated with the Order.
Bernard in Templar Mythology
Bernard has been a major figure in the modern Templar mythology. In the 19th century, a legend arose that Bernard had himself been a Templar, but this is not historically accurate. Bernard remained a Cistercian monk throughout his life, and he never joined the Templars.
The legend, however, has been a recurring element of the modern Templar mythology, examined in Templar Mythology, Symbolism and Hidden Knowledge.
Conclusion
Bernard of Clairvaux was, without exaggeration, the most important early champion of the Knights Templar. He helped to found the Order, wrote its Rule, defended it in print, and recruited its early members. The relationship between Bernard and the Templars shaped the Order in ways that would last for centuries. The Rule of the Templars, which Bernard helped to draw up, would be the foundation of the Order’s life until its suppression in 1312.