The Bernardine Reform and the Crusading Spirit

Abstract

On Christmas eve of the year 1144, the citizens of the several crusading states clustered on the shore of the eastern Mediterranean received a telling set-back to their self-confidence. county of Edessa had fallen to the forces of `Imad-al-Din Zengi, the ruler of Mosul and Aleppo.1 response to Edessa's fall . .caused a considerable stir in the West. . . ,2 but a retaliatory expedition was to wait for the response to a crusading bull from the newly-elected pope, Eugenius III (11451153), a bull issued on December 1, 1145.(3) This Cistercian pope then entrusted his former abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux, with the task of preaching a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the dangers threatening it. Bernard's role in preaching the Second Crusade was critical to the launching of that expedition. His influence aroused the European conscience to the point that he could write Pope Eugenius: You have commanded, and have obeyed. And the authority of your command has made my obedience fruitful. Since I have announced and have spoken, [the soldiers of the cross] have increased beyond number [Psalm 39:61. Cities and castles are emptied, and now seven women can hardly find one man to hold [see Isaiah 4:11]-so much so that everywhere there are widows whose husbands are still alive.4 In the course of launching the crusade, Bernard enrolled, at Vezelay in March, 1146, the hosts of a willing-indeed, eager-King Louis VII of France (1137-1180).5 At Speyer in December of 1146, Bernard enlisted the army of the hesitant emperor-elect, Conrad III (110 137-1152).6 Conrad was understandably reluctant since tensions between his family, the Hohenstaufen, and the supporters of Conrad's old enemy, Duke Welf VI, had approached a state of civil war. Bernard's influence, apparently aided by that of his Cistercian confrere, Adam of Ebrach, won Welf to the same cause as his ruler and thus enabled both sides to join in the crusading pilgrimage.7 Due in large part to Bernard's efforts, a vast army of men took the cross and set out for the East.8 Bernard's role in the calling of the crusade is clear, but his motivation in preaching what we call the Second Crusade has been less studied.9 An oblique reference to Bernard's motives in serving as a catalyst to the crusade has, however, been made by Yael Katzir in her article The Second Crusade and the Redefinition of Ecclesia, Christianitas and Papal Coercive Power.10 There she writes: It is possible that Bernard himself viewed the Second Crusade as a new reform movement.11 With this article should like to alter Katzir's statement in one fundamental way: by changing the mood from subjunctive to indicative. As see it, Bernard's role in the crusading movement can only be understood in the context of his attempts to reform the Church and society of the twelfth century-in no small part by reforming the lives and attitudes of those lay folk charged with the governance of that society. For Bernard, the fundamental task of lay rulers is to provide justice, the right ordering of society which will provide their people a proper environment in which to pursue happiness. Those charged with the governance of the state must have as their chief goal the salvation of those who inhabit the land they rule. Thus Bernard writes to Emperor Lothar: Blessed be God, who chose you and has raised you up to be a horn of salvation for us [see Luke 1:691, for the praise and glory of his name and for the restoration of the glory of the Empire, for the support of the Church in an evil hour [see 2 Maccabees 1:51, and, finally, for the work of salvation in the midst of the earth [see Psalm 73:12].12 Thus Lothar and his fellow rulers must exercise their function as vassals of the Lord by serving their people as . . the faithful minister[s] of God.13 justice of each realm must be defended by its ruler-by force if necessary right ordering of the state is impossible unless rulers protect their lands from hostile invasion. …