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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
ABBOTS in politics were surely a medieval commonplace, one might be tempted to say: what have these two egregious examples, Wala of Corbie (826–34, ob. 836) and Bernard of Clairvaux (1115–53), to say to us which countless others could not also say? If my two were not unique, however, they were comparative rarities, in that they became involved in politics (if that is the right word), not because of their feudal obligations, nor because they sought to propagate monastic reform on the basis of the observance of their own monastery, nor again because they associated the glory of their own house with a particular cause or royal line, but avowedly for the sake of moral principle, incurring enmities in the process, and, cloistered monks as they were, acting to some extent against the interests and wishes of their own flocks. The monk-bishop was a common enough figure, and the greatest men of this type, pre-eminently Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory the Great, have given us profound thoughts about how contemplation could and should be kept alive amidst the cares of the active and pastoral life. But neither Wala nor Bernard became a bishop, and paradoxically the latter's widespread and non-institutionalised influence might have been diminished had he done so. As one of Bernard's biographers felicitously but ingenuously put it in recounting that the saint had actually refused many bishoprics, ‘from under the bushel of his humility he gave a greater light to the church than others raised to the chandeliers’.
1 E.g. for Odilo of Cluny and the propagation of Cluniac observance, see Hourlier, J., Saint Odilon Abbé de Cluny (Louvain, 1964), esp. 61–72Google Scholar; for Suger of StDenis and the glory of his own house in relation to the Capetians, see Panofsky, E., Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of StDenis (Princeton, 1946), esp. 2–3, 31–37Google Scholar. Wibald of Stavelot and Corvey might have some likeness to Wala and Bernard; see Morris, Colin, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Churchfrom 1050 to 1250 (Oxford, 1989), 187, 189, 230Google Scholar; but neither did he brave hostility and opposition in the way they did, nor were Stavelot and Corvey left unrequited for his efforts, DDFI, no.44 (1153) for Stavelot, and nos. 21 (1152), 155 (1156–57) for Corey.
2 Butler, Cuthbert, Western Mysticism (1922), esp. part IIGoogle Scholar.
3 Et lucens amplius illustraret ecclesiam velut de sub modio humilitatis suae, quam ceteri super candelabra constituti: Geoffrey, of Auxerre, , Vita Prima, iii, 8, PL 185, col. 307DGoogle Scholar. Vita Prima = Vita Prima S.Bernardi, consisting of works by William of St Thierry, Arnold of Bonneval and Geoffrey of Auxerre, edited as a collection in the 1160s by Geoffrey to support St Bernard's canonization (1174), as well as for pastoral edification. It has not, therefore, got the kind of specific purpose which the Epitaphium Arsenii has, see Bredero, A. H., Études sur la ‘Vila Prima’ de Saint Bernard (Rome, 1960), 2–4, 147–61Google Scholar. And of course the writings of St Bernard, his own self-explanation, are much more important for our purposes than hagiographical writing, a genre on which we depend almost entirely in the case of Wala.
4 At an Oxford seminar on St Bernard in the Hilary Term of 1957; for the general run of those Cistercians who did become bishops, however, the illuminating discussion about Carthusians and bishoprics in Leyser, Henrietta, ‘Hugh the Carthusian’, Saint Hugh of Lincoln, ed. Harting, Henry Mayr (Oxford, 1987), at 13–17Google Scholar, has doubtless no little applicability. See also, from another interesting point of view on the same theme, Cowdrey, H.E.J., ‘Hugh of Avalon, Carthusian and Bishop’, De Cella in Saeculum, ed. Brewer, D.S. (1988)Google Scholar.
5 Dümmler, = Radbert's Epitaphium Arsenii, ed. Dümmler, E., Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Phil-Hist Kl. 2 (1900), 1–98, 13, 16Google Scholar; Weinrich, Lorenz, Wala: Graf, Mönch und Rebell: Die Biographic eines Karolingers (Lübeck & Hamburg, 1963), pp. 18–58Google Scholar. The translation of the Epitaphium by Cabaniss, A., Charlemagne's Cousins: Contemporary Lives of Adalhard and Wala (1967)Google Scholar, should be used with caution.
6 See Ganshof, F., ‘Some observations on the Ordinatio Imperii of 817’, in his The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy, trans. Sondheimer, Janet (1971), 273–88, esp. pp. 278–80Google Scholar.
7 Dümmler, 5–7.
8 E.g. Agobard of Lyon as cited by Dümmler, 10, note 1.
9 Dümmler, 9.
10 Bornscheuer, L., Miseriae Regum (Berlin, 1968), 41–59Google Scholar; Lotter, F., ‘Zur literarischen Form und Intention der Vita Heinrici IV, Festschrift H. Beumann, ed. Jäschke, K. U. & Wenskus, R. (Sigmaringen, 1977), 293–303Google Scholar; Corbet, Patrick, Les Saints Ottoniens (Sigmaringen, 1986), p. 83Google Scholar.
11 Dümmler, 11.
12 Dümmler, 20 (Epitaph. Ars. i, intro.).
13 Weínrich, 53, 59; cf. Dümmler, 50 (Epitaph., i, 21).
14 See Manitius, M., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, i (Munich, 1911), 405–6Google Scholar.
15 Dümmler, 22 (Epitaph, i, 1). One may note the somewhat different line of Hildemar of Corbie (after 833) in his commentary on RB at this point. He stresses the abbot's need to correct his monks prudently and with charity, Mittermüller, = Expositio Regulae ab Hildemaro Tradita, ed. Mittermüller, R. (Regensburg, New York and Cincinnati, 1880), 594Google Scholar. David Ganz wisely urged on me the desirability of studying this work. It shows how independent and distinctive was Pascasius in his approach to RB. Not only does Hildemar (and Warnefrid before him) generally take a different line or emphasis in commenting on the spiritual meaning of RB, but he also is much more concerned with its practical implications for ordinary monks than Pascasius is in the Epitaphium (not unnaturally), e.g. note 27 below. The commentaries, therefore, are much closer to the world of Benedict of Aniane's consuetudines, and to Adalhard of Corbie's statutes, see Verhulst, A. E. & Semmler, J., ‘Les Statuts d'Adalhard de Corbie de l' an 822’, Le Môyen Age, lxviii (1962), esp. 253–9Google Scholar, than they are to the Epitaphium, which creates its image of Wala out of RB's idealism. For the Aniane legislation, see below, note 49.
16 The standard edition of and commentary on the Rule of St Benedict is Vogüé, A. de (ed), La Règie de Saint Benoit (Cerf, Sources Chretiennes, 181 6, 1971 72Google Scholar. For Latin text and good English translation, see McCann, Justin (ed.), The Rule of Saint Benedict (1952)Google Scholar.
17 Dümmler, 35. Hildemar (Mittermüller, 536) comments mainly on the duties of the novice-master when dealing with RB 58.
18 Dümmler, 37.
19 Dümmler, 46. The principal point of Warnefrid (and Hildemar), also derived from RB, in connection with clothes was that they should be neither too cheap nor too expensive, and this was taken over in the legislation of Benedict of Aniane, see Schroll, A. M., Benedictine Monasticism as reflected in the Warnefrid-Hildemar Commentaries on the Rule (Columbia, NY, 1941), 46Google Scholar, and the Capitulary of 816, in Corpus Consuetud. Monast. (as in note 49 below), 436. There is nothing in Hildemar on the contest of humility (Mittermüller, 99–107).
20 Dümmler, 53–4.
21 E.g. in Dümmler, abstinentia, 26, I.12; lenitas, 53, I.25; aequalitas vitae, 34, 1.17; gravitas, 36, I.16, 49, I.27, 54, I.28; taciturnitas (in effect), 34–5; modestia vitae, 54, 1.8.
22 For Hildemar, see Mittermüller and Schroll, as in notes 15 and 19 above; for Smaragdus's commentary, PL 102, cols. 689–932.
23 For this subject, see Fichtenau, H., The Carolingian Empire, trans. Munz, Peter (Oxford, 1957), 116–18Google Scholar, using the Epitaphium Arsenii, i, 26.
24 Eigilis Vita Sancti Sturmi, c. 14, MGH SS II, 371, I.34, 372, 1.6. This work is translated into English by Talbot, C. H., The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany (1954), 181–202Google Scholar.
25 Vita Sancti Adalhardi, cc. 32–34, PL 120, cols. 1525–27, esp. col. 1527A.
26 Dümmler, 76. For the relations of Corbie and Corvey, seeEpitaphium, i, 12, Dümmler, 41, and Weinrich, 39–43.
27 Dümmler, 81–2. This is a perfect example of the different purposes and thus approach of Pascasius and Hildemar (see note 15 above). Apart from etymology and stressing the occasions of sin outside the enclosure, Hildemar has nothing to say on involvement in affairs but concentrates on the practical question of how large the enclosure should ideally be, Mittermüller, 183.
28 Dümmler, 7, 11.
29 Dümmler, 79: considerabat rotas et volubilitates quibus vertitur saeculum.
30 Vita Hludowici Imperatoris, c.45, MGH SS II, 633: Walac h abba s iussus est ad monasterium redire Corbeiae, ibique regulariter observari.
31 Dümmler, 92.
32 Dümmler, 82.
33 Fried, Johannes, ‘Der karolingische Herrschaftsverband im 9 Jahrhundert zwischen Kirche und Konigshaus’, Historische £eitschrift, ccxxxv (1982), 1–43Google Scholar
34 Loup de Ferriéres, Correspondance, ed. Levillain, L. (Paris, 1964), ii, 6, no. 70Google Scholar; Agobard's, Adversus Legem Gundobadi Ad Ludovuum in Agobardi Lugdunensis Opera Omnia, ed. Van Acker, L., Corpus Christianorum 52, 19–28Google Scholar, and for the date of 817–22, xxxix; Die Kloslergemeinschafi von Fulda im früheren Mittelalter, ed. Schmidt, K.etal (Munich, 1978), vol. 2/3 (Eckhard Freise), 1017–29Google Scholar; Epitaphium Arsenii, as in note 32 above.
35 Wehlen, Wolfgang, Geschichtsschreibung und Staatsauffassung im Zeitalter Ludwigs des Frommen (Lübeck & Hamburg, 1970), 107–22Google Scholar; and see Dümmler, e.g., 65, 76, 8i, 82, esp. at p. 76, where stress is laid on this: ob ecclesiarum liberationem … et dispensationem facultatum ecclesiarum.
36 Ambrosius Autpertus in Apocalypsim Libri Decent, in Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum 13 (Lyon, 1677), e.g. 422F–HGoogle Scholar. For evidence that this work was known amongst the Carolingians, Bernhard Bischoff, ‘Italienische Handschriften des neunten bis elften Jahrhunderts im frumittelalterlichen Bibliotheken ausserhalb Italiens’, in Il Libra e il Teslo 1982: Atti del Convegno Intemazionale (Urbino, 1984), 186Google Scholar.
37 Klewitz, H- W, ‘Das Ende des Reformpapsttums’, Deutsches Archiv, iii (1939), 372–412Google Scholar.
38 E.g. Knowles, David, ‘The case of St William of York’, in his Historian and Character (Cambridge, 1963), 76–97Google Scholar; Constable, Giles, ‘The disputed election at Langres in 1138’, Traditio, xiii (1957), 119–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de la Tour, P. Imbart, Les Elections Episcopates dans l' Eglise de France du IXe au XIIe Siècle (Paris, 1890)Google Scholar.
39 Vita Prima, i, 61, PL 185, col. 260; ibid., vi, col. 401D.
40 E.g.Smalley, Beryl, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1952), 173Google Scholar. For St Bernard's connections with Parisian masters, Vacandard, E., Vie de St Bernard (Paris, 1920), ii, 112–18Google Scholar.
41 Ep. 64, Opera, = Sancti Bernardi Opera, ed. Leclercq, J., Talbot, C. H., Rochais, H. M., (Rome, 1957–1977), vii, 157–8Google Scholar, BSJ, = The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. James, Bruno Scott (1953)Google Scholar, a good translation, BSJ67.
42 Runciman, Steven, A History of the Crusades, ii (1952), 247–88, esp. 263Google Scholar.
43 Otto of Freising and the Vita Prima are the principal sources which show this, and see Bernard's self-defence in his De Consideratione, ii, cc 1–2, Opera, iii, 410–12.
44 Opera, viii, 313–14, letter to the archbishops of East Francia and Bavaria; BSJ, no. 391, as Letter to the English People.
45 Ep. 143 (BSJ 144), Opera, vii, 342.
46 Ep. 144 (BSJ 146), Opera, vii, 345–6.
47 Cited by Morris, 259.
48 Vita Prima, ii, 27, PI 185, col. 283.
49 Semmler, J., ‘Benedictus II: una regula una consuetudo, in Benedictine Culture, 750–1050, ed. Lourdaux, W. & Verhulst, D. (Leuven, 1983), 1–49Google Scholar, citation at p. 48. Similarly, Semmler, J., ‘Zur Uberlieferung der monastischen Gesetzgebung Ludwigs des Frommens’, Deutsches Archiv, xvi (1960), 309–88Google Scholar. The principal Aniane material is edited by Semmler in Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum, i (Siegburg, 1963), 425–582Google Scholar. For a useful survey of the manuscript transmission of RB amongst the Carolingians, see McKitterick, Rosamond, The Prankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987 (1983), 119–21Google Scholar. Noble, T. FX., ‘The monastic ideal as a model for Empire: the case of Louis the Pious’, Rév. Bén. 86 (1976), 235–50Google Scholar, is of value but relates Louis to RB only in a much more general way (and principally to the abbot) than I have shown that Wala can be related in the Epitaphium.
50 Opera, iii, 255–6.
51 Ibid., 257–9.
52 Corpus Christianorum, Ser. Lat, 32 (Turnhout, 1962), iii, 15, p. 91.
53 Opera, iii, 283–91.
54 Ep. 143 (BSJ 144), Opera, vii, 343, line 17; Ep. 535 (BSJ 201), Opera, viii, 500–1.
55 On the distinction between the words amor and caritas, see Morris, 369. For lower kinds of love St Bernard would not use the word caritas, but for divine love he appears to use the words amor and caritas almost interchangeably, see, for instance, Gilson, E., The Mystical Theology of St Bernard, trans. Downes, A. H. C. (1940), 245Google Scholar.
56 Cant = Sancti Bernardi Sermones super Cantica Canticorum, Opera i, ii. Cant, Sermo 1, 8, Opera, i, 6, line 14: aeterni connubii … sacramenta. Here the word amor is used, but caritas is associated with the same idea in Cant, 71, 8–9, Opera, ii, 219, esp. lines 6–10. St Bernard's Sermons on the Song of Songs have been translated into English by Walsh, Kilian and Edmonds, Irene in the Cistercian Father Series, vols. 4, 7, 31, 40 (1971–1980)Google Scholar.
57 Cant, Sermo 71, 8–10, Opera, ii, 220–21.
58 Cant, Sermo 9, Opera, i, 46.
59 Gilson, chapter 3, and p. 67.
60 My debt to the influential title paper in Southern, R. W., Medieval Humanism and other Studies (Oxford, 1970), 29–60Google Scholar, will be clear.
61 Esp. c. 6, Opera, iii, 178.
62 Esp., c. 14, Opera, iii, 199–200; corona iustitiae, c. 14; ibid., 203, 11.3–4.
63 Ganz, David, ‘The debate on predestination’, in Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom, ed. Gibson, Margaret and Nelson, Janet, British Archaeol. Reports, International Series 101 (1981), 353–73Google Scholar, the citation at p. 366.
64 Cant, Sermo 83, Opera, ii, 298, 11.19–23, and 300–1. Against what one might expect (see Morris, 374), Bernard seems to have denied the rights of the devil in human affairs, e.g. Cant, Sermo 85, cc. 3–4, Opera, ii, 309–10.
65 Vila Prima, i, cc. 51, 61. 65. 68. PL 185, cols. 256, 260, 263, 264.
66 Vita Prima, iii, c. 5, PL 185, col. 306.
67 As the famous, or notorious, passage on Cluniac art, Apologia ad Guillelmum, c. 29, shows, Opera, iii, 106, see Panofsky 25.
68 E.g. saying how dark hair on fair-skinned faces enhances their beauty and grace: et nigri capilli candidis vultibus etiam decorem augent et gratiam, Cant, Sermo 25, Opera, i, 164, 11.16–17.
69 Vita Prima, iii, 4, P L 185, col. 306A.
70 Vila Prima, i, 20, PL 185, col. 238. My translation is something of a paraphrase here.
71 Cant, Sermo 63, Opera, ii, 165.
72 Evans, Joan, Monastic Life at Cluny (Oxford, 1931), 112–14Google Scholar.
73 As at Fountains and Rievaulx (Yorks.) respectively.
74 Opera, ii, 80–81.
75 De Civitate Dei, xix, 9, Corpus Christianorum 48, 686, cited Ladner, G. B., The Idea of Reform (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 337–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
76 Moralia in Job, xix, c. 45, PL 76, col. 126B.
77 Vita Prima, i, 24, and iii, 7, PL 185, cols. 241 and 307B–C.
78 Evans, Gillian, The Mind of St Bernard (Oxford, 1983), 74, 81Google Scholar.
79 Gilson, 72, distinguishes between the ‘proper will’ and the ‘common will’, the latter being, ‘the will common to man and God’. This is a concept very close to, if not exactly the same as, Rousseau's General Will.
80 Ioannis Saresberiensis Historia Pontificalis, ed. with trans. Chibnall, Marjorie (1956), 20Google Scholar.
81 De Consideratione, ii, cc. 16–17, Opera, iii, 424–5.
82 E.g. by Jacqueline, Bernard, Episcopal et Papauté chez Saint Bernard de Clairvaux (Saint-Lo, 1975), 205–7Google Scholar.
83 Vita Prima, iii, 2, PL 185, cols. 304–5 (there is no reason to doubt this merely because it is an hagiographical topos, which can be found in Cio Ruotger's Vita Brunonis, c. 29, for instance); De Consideratione, ii, cc. 1–2, Opera, iii, 410–12.
84 Cant, Sermo 18, Opera, i, 104.
85 For the date of the Sermons on the Song of Songs, Opera, i, xv–xvi.
86 Ep. 124 (BSJ 127): Et quod saneet vestra, Pater, exspectatur sicut pluvia in vellus, vel sera sententia; and Ep. 126 (BSJ 129), Opera, vii, 307, 310, 1. 23.
87 Otto, of Freising, , Gesta Friderici I Imperatoris, ed. Waitz, G. (MGH Script, rer. Ger. in usum scholarum, Hannover & Leipzig, 1912), i, c. 40, 59Google Scholar.
88 Although the analogy should not be pressed too far, Peter Brown has made a distinction, a propos of Late Antiquity, between articulate power, the normally vested and agreed authority in a society, exercised by its holders through well-defined articulate channels, and inarticulate or achieved power, whose holders have an ill-defined status, acquired largely through their personal skills, a distinction which helps to express the phenomenon of St Bernard: Peter Brown, ‘Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity: from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages’, reprinted in his book, Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (1972), 119–46, esp. 123–9.
89 See Dümmler, 5–6.
