Source—Text in Martin Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France ["Collection of the Historians of Gaul and of France">[ (Paris, 1874), Vol. IX., pp. 709-711.
To all who think wisely it is evident that the providence of God has made it possible for rich men, by using well their temporal possessions, to be able to merit eternal rewards.... I, William, count and duke, after diligent reflection, and desiring to provide for my own safety while there is still time, have decided that it is advisable, indeed absolutely necessary, that Motives for Duke William's benefaction from the possessions which God has given me I should give some portion for the good of my soul. I do this, indeed, in order that I who have thus increased in wealth may not at the last be accused of having spent all in caring for my body, but rather may rejoice, when fate at length shall snatch all things away, in having preserved something for myself. I cannot do better than follow the precepts of Christ and make His poor my friends. That my gift may be durable and not transitory I will support at my own expense a congregation of monks. And I hope that I shall receive the reward of the righteous because I have received those whom I believe to be righteous and who despise the world, although I myself am not able to despise all things.[363]
Therefore be it known to all who live in the unity of the faith and who await the mercy of Christ, and to those who shall succeed them and who shall continue to exist until the end of the world, that, for the love of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, I hand over from my own rule to the holy apostles, namely, The land and other property ceded Peter and Paul, the possessions over which I hold sway—the town of Cluny, with the court and demesne manor, and the church in honor of St. Mary, the mother of God, and of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, together with all the things pertaining to it, the villas, the chapels, the serfs of both sexes, the vines, the fields, the meadows, the woods, the waters and their outlets, the mills, the incomes and revenues, what is cultivated and what is not, all without reserve. These things are situated in or about the county of Mâcon[364], each one marked off by definite bounds. I give, moreover, all these things to the aforesaid apostles—I, William, and my wife Ingelberga—first for the love of God; then for the soul of my lord King Odo, of my father and my mother; for myself and my wife,—for the salvation, namely, of our souls and bodies; and not least, for that of Ava, who left me these things in her will; for the souls also of our brothers and sisters and nephews, and of all our relatives of both sexes; for our faithful ones who adhere to our service; for the advancement, also, and integrity of the Catholic religion. Finally, since all of us Christians are held together by one bond of love and faith, let this donation be for all—for the orthodox, namely, of past, present, or future times.
I give these things, moreover, with this understanding, that in Cluny a monastery shall be constructed in honor of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and that there the monks shall congregate and live according to the rule of St. Benedict, and that A monastery to be established. they shall possess and make use of these same things for all time. In such wise, however, that the venerable house of prayer which is there shall be faithfully frequented with vows and supplications, and that heavenly conversations shall be sought after with all desire and with the deepest ardor; and also that there shall be diligently directed to God prayers and exhortations, as well for me as for all, according to the order in which mention has been made of them above. And let the monks themselves, together with all aforesaid possessions, be under the power and dominion of the abbot Berno, who, as long as he shall live, shall preside over them regularly according to his knowledge and ability.[365] But after his death, those same monks shall have power and permission Election of abbots to be "canonical" to elect any one of their order whom they please as abbot and rector, following the will of God and the rule promulgated by St. Benedict—in such wise that neither by the intervention of our own or of any other power may they be impeded from making a purely canonical election. Every five years, moreover, the aforesaid monks shall pay to the church of the apostles at Rome ten shillings to supply them with lights; and they shall have the protection of those same apostles and the defense of the Roman pontiff; and those monks may, with their whole heart and soul, according to their ability and knowledge, build up the aforesaid place.
We will, further, that in our times and in those of our successors, according as the opportunities and possibilities of that Works of charity enjoined place shall allow, there shall daily, with the greatest zeal, be performed works of mercy towards the poor, the needy, strangers, and pilgrims.[366] It has pleased us also to insert in this document that, from this day, those same monks there congregated shall be subject neither to our yoke, nor to that of our relatives, nor to the sway of the royal might, nor to that of any earthly power. And, through God and all His saints, and by the awful day of judgment, I warn and admonish that no one of the secular princes, no count, no bishop, not even the pontiff of the aforesaid Roman see, shall invade the property of these servants of God, or alienate it, or diminish it, or exchange it, or give it as a benefice to any one, or set up any prelate over them against their will.[367]
43. The Early Career of St. Bernard and the Founding of Clairvaux
The most important individual who had part in the twelfth century movement for monastic reform was unquestionably St. Bernard, of whom indeed it has been said with reason that for a quarter of a century there was no more influential man in Europe. Born in 1091, he came upon the scene when times were ripe for great deeds and great careers, whether with the crusading hosts in the East or in the vexed swirl of secular and ecclesiastical affairs in the West. Particularly were the times ripe for a great preacher and reformer—one who could avail himself of the fresh zeal of the crusading period and turn a portion of it to the regeneration of the corrupt and sluggish spiritual life which in far too great a measure had crept in to replace the earlier purity and devotion of the clergy. The need of reform was perhaps most conspicuous in the monasteries, for many monastic establishments had not been greatly affected by the Cluniac movement of the previous century, and in many of those which had been touched temporarily the purifying influences had about ceased to produce results. It was as a monastic reformer that St. Bernard rendered greatest service to the Church of his day, though he was far more than a mere zealot. He was, says Professor Emerton, more than any other man, representative of the spirit of the Middle Ages. "The monastery meant to him, not a place of easy and luxurious retirement, where a man might keep himself pure from earthly contact, nor even a home of learning, from which a man might influence his world. It meant rather a place of pitiless discipline, whereby the natural man should be reduced to the lowest terms and thus the spiritual life be given its largest liberty. The aim of Bernard was nothing less than the regeneration of society through the presence in it of devoted men, bound together by a compact organization, and holding up to the world the highest types of an ideal which had already fixed itself in the imagination of the age."[368]
The founding of Clairvaux by St. Bernard, in 1115, was not the beginning of a new monastic order; the Cistercians, to whom the establishment properly belonged, had originated at Cîteaux seventeen years before. But in later times St. Bernard was very properly regarded as a second founder of the Cistercians, and the story of his going forth from the parent house to establish the new one affords an excellent illustration of the spirit which dominated the leaders in monastic reform in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and of the methods they employed to keep alive the lofty ideals of the old Benedictine system; and, although individual monasteries were founded under the most diverse circumstances, the story is of interest as showing us the precise way in which one monastic house took its origin. By the time of St. Bernard's death (1153) not fewer than a hundred and fifty religious houses had been regenerated under his inspiration.
We are fortunate in possessing a composite biography of the great reformer which is practically contemporary. It is in five books, the first of which was written by William, abbot of St. Thierry of Rheims; the second by Arnold, abbot of Bonneval, near Chartres; and the third, fourth, and fifth by Geoffrey, a monk of Clairvaux and a former secretary of St. Bernard. William of St. Thierry (from whose portion of the biography selection "a" below is taken) wrote about 1140, Arnold and Geoffrey soon after Bernard's death in 1153.