BERNARD, Sr., the first abbot of Clairvaux, was the third son of Tescelin of Fontaine in Burgundy, where he was born in 1091. He acquired so great a reputation by his zeal and abilities, that all the affairs of the church appeared to rest upon his shoulders, and kings and princes seemed to have chosen him as general arbitrator of their differences. It was owing to him that Innocent II. was acknowledged sovereign pontiff, and that, after the death of Peter Louis the anti-pope, Victor, who had been named his successor, voluntarily abdicated the dignity. Bernard convicted Abelard at the council of Sens, in the year 1140; he opposed the monk Raoul; he persecuted the followers of Arnold of Brescia; and, in 1148, he caused Gilbert de la Porcie, bishop of Poitiers, and Eonde l'Etoile, to be condemned in
the council of Rheims. By such zealous behaviour he verified, according to Bayle, the interpretation of his mother's dream. She had dreamed, when with child of him, that she should bring forth a white dog, whose barking should be very loud. Astonished at this dream, which she was unable to unriddle, she consulted a monk, who said to her, "Be of good courage; you shall have a son who shall guard the house of God, and bark loudly against the enemies of the faith." But St Bernard went far beyond the prediction; for he barked sometimes against chimerical enemies, and was more successful in exterminating the heterodox than in putting down infidels, although he attacked the latter, not only with the ordinary arms of his eloquence, but also with the extraordinary weapon of prophecy. He preached the crusade under Louis the Younger, and added greatly to the troops of the crusaders. But all the splendid visions with which he had flattered the people were disappointed by the event; and when it was alleged that he had hurried a vast number of Christians to slaughter without sharing the dangers himself, the saint alleged in his defence that the sins of the crusaders had destroyed the efficacy of his prophecies. He is said to have founded 160 monasteries, and to have wrought a prodigious number of miracles. He died August 20. 1153, aged sixty-three. Of the numerous editions of his works, the best is that of Father Mabillon, printed at Paris in 1690, in 2 vols. folio, which also contains the biography of St Bernard written by his secretary and disciple Geoffrey.