Bernard of Morlaix - THE LATIN LITERARY TRADITION

Bernard of Cluny by John Balnaves.
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CHAPTER 5 THE LATIN LITERARY TRADITION

The classical learning of Bernard of Morlaix

Some of Bernard's classical allusions are commonplaces. Take, for example, his treatment of envy in the De octo vitiis.

Invidus arescit, cum fratri gloria crescit,
Alteriusque nimis rebus macrescit opimis,
Undeque letatur mens huic, illi cruciatur.
Invidia magni non invenere tiranni
Tormentum peius. Furit in sese furor eius.
Justius invidia nichil est testante Talia.¹

The envious man seethes when his brother's fame increases. He pines away when he sees somebody else enjoying great success. It hurts him to see other people happy. No worse torment than envy has been invented even by great tyrants. The madness of envy drives itself mad. Envy is nowhere more aptly described than in the words of Thalia.

In part, this is a quotation from Horace, who has the following:

Invidus alterius macrescit rebus opimis:
invidia Siculi non invenere tyranni
maius tormentum. Qui non moderabitur irae
infectum volet esse dolor quod suaserit et mens,
dum poenas odio per vim festinat inulto.²

It is quite possible that Bernard was quoting directly from Horace, for, as we shall see, there is clear evidence that he knew the works of Horace well. But this particular instance could just as well have come from a collection of aphorisms about envy. There is just such a collection in the Carmina Burana:

I. Invidus invidia comburitur intus et extra.

II. Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis.
Invidia Siculi non invenere tyranni
Maius tormentum. qui non moderabitur ire,
Infectum volet esse, dolor quod suaserit aut mens.

III Invidiosus ego, non invidus esse laboro.

IV. Iustius invidia nichil est, que protinus ipsos
Corripit auctores excruciatque suos.

V. Invidiam nimio cultu vitare memento.³

The second of these aphorisms derives from the passage in Horace's Epistles set out above, the same passage from which Bernard quotes. The fourth, which Bernard also makes use of, derives from Saint Jerome: "Pulchre quidam de neotericis Graecum versum transferens elegiaco metro de invidia lusit dicens: Justius invidia nihil est, quae protinus ipsum auctorem rodit excruciatque animum."⁴ That explains Bernard's somewhat cryptic reference to Thalia, the Muse of comedy. Bernard goes on to a description of the envious man which is not dependent upon classical quotation or allusion:

He envies those who are superior to him, those who are equal to him and those who are inferior to him. He envies his superiors because he does not hold a position equal to theirs; his equals because they compete with him for the same reward; his inferiors because they might be promoted to a position equal to his ... Oh great God in heaven for whom I pant in longing, protect me and mine from jealousy, the weapon of Satan.⁵

The quotations with which Bernard prefaces his account of envy are not enough to demonstrate a direct familiarity with classical authors. Such quotations, used in such a way, could easily have been derived from florilegia. In like manner, Bernard's use of the phrase "casta cubilia" does not necessarily imply a knowledge of the satires of Catullus, who was in fact not well known in the twelfth century.⁶ It may do so, because both Bernard⁷ and Catullus⁸ are referring to marriage laws and customs, but it might equally well be derived from florilegia. It is perhaps significant that, when Bernard wants particularly to talk about satirists, he names Horace, Cato, Persius, Juvenal and Lucilius, but makes no mention of Catullus.⁹

There are many other similar cases in which Bernard does not acknowledge the source of a phrase which may be a quotation, or which may rather be derived from florilegia or be simply a commonplace. Consider, for example, "facilis descensus Averni."¹⁰ Bernard, who does not attribute this phrase of Vergil's, means that many people go to hell. Vergil appears simply to mean that it is easy going down, but very hard to get back up again. After all, for Vergil, Elysium is down there, too. Bernard does not agree: "Elysios ibi non reperis tibi."¹¹ When Bernard speaks of Liburnian slaves carrying a rich man's litter, he is not necessarily referring to Juvenal.¹² Nor is he, perhaps, referring to Juvenal when he uses the expression "diva Philippica" in relation to Cicero.¹³ And the adage "gloria calcar habet" no doubt appeared in every schoolbook. It need not be quoted from Ovid.¹⁴ Again, "Aequor arantibus" may be a quotation from Ovid,¹⁵ but "ploughing the sea" is surely a commonplace. Furthermore, Ovid refers simply to sailing. Bernard's imagery is more complex. His point is that honesty is so rare that it is a marvel, like ploughing the sea with carts, or the desert with sails, or the fields with fish, or the air with ships, or outer space with camels. Likewise, the metaphor of dropping the anchor for coming to an end may be regarded as a commonplace. Bernard's uses of it and similar metaphors¹⁶ are not necessarily quotations from Ovid¹⁷ or from Horace¹⁸ or from any classical author. Nor need a mention of Lethe's waters of forgetfulness be a reference to or quotation from Ovid¹⁹ or Vergil;²⁰ nor need "lyncea lumina" or "sub vulpe latentes" be quotations from Horace;²¹ nor need "Gorgonis ora" be an allusion to Ovid.²² And Bernard's use of the phrase "noctis opacae"²³ is probably not intended to call to mind Vergil's use of it.²⁴

Such classical references and allusions are not evidence for familiarity with the works of any classical author, but they do suggest something of the classical background of the ordinary, educated twelfth-century monk. These are the kinds of thing that, as Macaulay might say, a schoolboy of fourteen would know.²⁵ Bernard himself suggests that this is the case. He warns us of the transience of human glory, and asks:

Where is Varro now? Where are Cato, Socrates, Plato, Ovid, Vergil, Cicero, Lucan, Seneca, Nero, Caesar, Alexander? After such a short time, they are gone. Nothing now remains of the splendour of these men, so rapidly snatched away ... The river Styx holds their souls while the grave holds their bones in an embrace of soil. All that is left of them is their names, which schoolboys recite, the names that crown them with honour. Schoolboys apply themselves to the study of them, piling words on words.²⁶

Bernard may have benefited from just such an education as he describes here. In the prologue to the De contemptu mundi, he says:

Si vero superbum spirans ferule manum submittere dedignatur non minus fatuitatis quam superbie arguitur, ac propterea nec a rudibus quidem nec ipse nec eius sermo accipitur.

If an arrogant man is too proud to hold out his hand for the cane, he is guilty of folly as well as pride, because neither he nor his work will be found acceptable, even by the uneducated.²⁷

Bernard is alluding to the first satire of Juvenal, in which Juvenal complains of the derivative nature of contemporary writing and the excessive use of mythological references. He goes on to say that he, too, when he was a schoolboy, put his hand out for the cane and composed standard declamations:

Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos
Consilium dedimus Sullae, privatus ut altum
Dormiret.²⁸

Bernard's education seems to have been similar. Of all his poems, only the Mariale and the Chartula nostra (if they are his) are free from classical references or quotations. The Chartula nostra is a special case, because it is addressed to a child. Rainaldus, for whom it was written,²⁹ was just such a schoolboy as Bernard had in mind in the passage quoted above, but Bernard was not concerned to reinforce Rainaldus' classical lore, but rather to instruct him in sacred matters. He uses a style which is simple and easy to read.

But the rest of Bernard's poems are highly sophisticated in style and liberally peppered with classical allusions and quotations, nearly always appropriately used and designed to enhance his meaning. Kimon Giocarinis provides a range of examples (different from those offered here, and studied from a different point of view). He concludes with the following tribute:

The classical references, borrowings, echoes, with which his work is so thickly set, the classical locutions, commonplaces, metaphors, illustrations and anecdotes with which his verse abounds, all attest to his ample latinity and a knowledge of classical literature which is not inert, but living and fully operant. The antique exists in his consciousness. The ancient authors amplify and, in cases, help shape his vision. They certainly do much to mould the art and manner in which he voices what he has to say, lending force to his utterances.³⁰

Most frequent of Bernard's classical allusions are his references to mythological and legendary characters. Among them are, for example, Achilles, Aeacus, Agenor, the Amazons, Apollo, Argus, Astraea, Bacchus, Bellona, Capaneus, Charon, the Eumenides, Gorgon, Hector, Hercules, Iarbus, Jocasta, Juno, Jupiter, Lucretia, Mars, Myrrha, Nestor, Orestes, Orpheus, Phaedra, Philoctetes, Phoceus, Pirithous, Polynices, Polyphemus, Romulus and Remus, Rhadamanthus, Sisyphus, Tantalus, Thalia, Theseus, Tisiphone, and Tydeus. Bernard's mythological allusions are not limited to persons. He frequently mentions mythological topics such as Scylla and Charybdis, the Hydra, the Golden Age and so forth, and the classical Underworld provides him with such terms as Avernus, Cerberus, Elysium, Lethe, Phlegethon, Styx, Tartarus and Typhoeus. In addition, he uses classical terms in a way which hardly constitutes classical allusion, because the words had become absorbed into his Latin vocabulary so that their reference to the mythological characters from which they derive is not at the forefront of his mind. Venus, for example, almost always means simply "lust," with no reference to any other characteristics of Aphrodite.³¹ Similarly, Hermaphroditus and Ganymede often have little reference to the mythological characters. They simply refer to homosexuality. And "Mars rigidus" is simply warfare, though there may be an allusion to Ovid, who also sometimes uses the name metaphorically.³²

Bernard's references to characters from classical history (or what he took to be history) are also frequent. For example, he illustrates his homilies with appropriate allusions to Aemilius Paulus, Alexander, Augustus, Brutus, Cato, the Cornelii, Crassus, Croesus, Cyrus, Darius, the Fabii, Fabricius, Jugurtha, Lucretia, Marius, Nero, Regulus, the Sabine women, Sardanapalus, the Scauri, Scipio, Socrates and Solon. Mention of classical writers is almost equally common. For example, we find allusions to Aristotle, Caesar, Cicero, Democritus, Demosthenes, Diogenes, Epicurus, Homer, Lucilius, Persius, Plato, Pythagoras, Seneca and Varro. Characters from classical literature also appear. For example, Bernard makes use of Locusta and Lycisca from Juvenal and of Nisus and Euryalus from Vergil. And he may have got his "nequid nimis" from Terence, because he uses the name Dromo (from the slave in Terence's Adelphi) in a specially telling way.³³ Bernard has other kinds of classical allusion. For example, he mentions the Codex Theodosius, the Lex Julia and the Lex Scatinia,³⁴ and, as is discussed below in Chapter 6, he was familiar with classical metres.

Classical references and allusions tell us something about the scope and breadth of Bernard's classical background, but they tell us little about its depth. For that purpose, we need to look at Bernard's use of those classical authors with whose works he can be shown to be familiar from a reading of their works, not merely through anthologies and commonplaces. Authors, that is to say, from whose works he quotes extensively, rather than simple referring to or mentioning. Those authors are Horace, Vergil, Juvenal and Ovid.

Horace is the poet from whose works Bernard most frequently quotes, and his quotations range over all of Horace's works, showing some preference for the Ars poetica and the Epistles. Bernard quotes extensively from the Aeneid and the Eclogues of Vergil, but not from the Georgics. He quotes from most of Juvenal's satires, several of them more than once. Notably absent from his use of Ovid are the Fasti and the Heroides. He quotes from all the other major works of Ovid, especially from the Ars amatoria and the Metamorphoses. Quotations from classical writers occur in all the poems which are quite certainly Bernard's. They are most frequent in the De contemptu mundi and the De octo vitiis. Juvenal, as one might expect from the subject matter of the De contemptu mundi, features specially strongly in that poem.

Sometimes Bernard knows his author so well that he can quote him in such a way as to illuminate and extend the point he is making. For example:

Vivitur omnibus et sine legibus et sine normis.
Parca perit manus, esurit orphanus, hostis abundat.³⁵

"The sparing hand perishes" conveys, in itself, very little meaning. Indeed, taken literally, it suggests something quite different from what Bernard intends. It seems to mean that the man who is careful to preserve his resources is, in this wicked age, looked on with disfavour. It suggests that Bernard is praising the middle-class virtue of thrift. But thrift was not highly regarded in the middle ages. What Keen says of the late middle ages is equally true of the twelfth century: "... we move in a social world to which any ideal of saving, let alone of capital accumulation, was alien. Riches were for redistribution, not for re-investment: largesse was a quality to be expected of every nobleman."³⁶ That was clearly Bernard's view. In the De octo vitiis, he castigates the miserly, who "find it hard to give"³⁷:

Semper avarus eget neque degit ovans neque deget
Aut constans unquam dum dextram tollet aduncam.
Quis domino carus? Dans cuncta. Quis hostis? Avarus.³⁸

The miser always wants more. He does not spend his time in happiness, nor will he ever be securely happy until he takes away his grasping hand. Who is dear to the Lord? The man who gives everything he has. Who is his enemy? The miser.

("Semper avarus eget", incidentally, is quoted from Horace,³⁹ as is "fervet avaricia" a few lines earlier.⁴⁰) Bernard's dislike of meanness appears also in his lengthy treatment of the theme of Dives and Lazarus in the De contemptu mundi.⁴¹ "Parca perit manus, esurit orphanus" cannot mean "the thrifty man suffers, the orphan goes hungry [in this degenerate age]." Bernard expects his readers to recognise the allusion to an Ode of Horace:

multa petentibus
desunt multa: bene est, cui deus obtulit
parca quod satis est manu.⁴²

The man who strives for riches is poor. Happy the man to whom God, with sparing hand, gives enough to live on.

Bernard uses "parca manus" as a portmanteau phrase for "he to whom God gives with a sparing hand." Bernard, that is to say, means that the poor man (not the thrifty man) suffers in these wicked times. It is significant of the level of twelfth-century classical education that he expects his readers to recognise the allusion and to understand.

Similarly, in two of his poems, Bernard speaks of singing in the presence of robbers. In the De contemptu mundi, he describes a merchant who, in the course of his travels, is robbed of all his goods, whereafter "vacuus canit ante latronem."⁴³ In the De octo vitiis, in his discussion of avarice, he speaks of the traveller who "changes his skies but not his soul."⁴⁴ He says, "The traveller who carries wealth does not sing in the presence of a robber."⁴⁵ The significance of the expression is hardly clear, unless we realise that it derives from Juvenal's tenth satire:

Pauca licet portes argenti vascula puri,
Nocte iter ingressus gladium contumque timebis,
Et motae ad lunam trepidabis arundinis umbram:
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.⁴⁶

When you go on a journey at night, even though you have only a few silver coins in your purse, you will be fearful of swords and cudgels, and you will be startled by every movement of the reeds in the moonlight. But the man who has nothing at all can stroll past robbers, whistling.

When Bernard complains of the pseudoprophetae⁴⁷ who abound more than ever before, he has in mind the Cistercians.⁴⁸ He says of them, "latet anguis in herba." The snake in the grass is a common enough image, but there is a particular resonance here. Bernard no doubt wants us to recognise the allusion to Vergil:

Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga,
frigidus, o pueri (fugite hinc!), latet anguis in herba.⁴⁹

There is a double level of artificiality in Vergil's poem. In the first place, it has all the conventionality of a pastoral poem. In the second place, it is a particular kind of poem called amoebaeic, in which the characters in a poetic dialogue exchange verses. Vergil's snake in the grass is, so to speak, a fiction within a fiction, and Bernard's allusion to it adds colour to the hypocrisy of his false prophets. This same mob of unworthy monks is called "hispida corpore, lubrica pectore." The allusion is to Juvenal's diatribe against the hypocrites of his own day, who affect ancestral peasant virtues as a front for their lechery:

Hispida membra quidem et durae per brachia setae
Promittunt atrocem animum: sed podice laevi
Caeduntur tumidae, medico ridente, mariscae.⁵⁰

Bernard, through his quotation from Juvenal, is giving us a broad hint that his false prophets may be sodomites, and the adjective "slippery" ("lubricus," one of Bernard's favourite pejorative adjectives) gains additional meaning in the context of Juvenal's remarks. In the same way, Bernard's taunt, "en Cato tertius aethere missus,"⁵¹ which refers to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,⁵² can be fully understood only by reference to its source in the same satire of Juvenal, in which a prostitute says mockingly to the hypocrite:

Felicia tempora, quae te
Moribus opponunt! Habeat jam Roma pudorem!
Tertius a coelo cecidit Cato.⁵³

In the De contemptu mundi Bernard complains that people spend more time in taverns than they do in churches, and comments:

Gens bibit impia, vina furentia plus satis aequo,
Fert oleum focus inde subit jocus ordine caeco.⁵⁴

The allusion, which he expects us to recognise, is to a satire of Horace which illuminates Bernard's meaning. The satire is in the form of a dialogue, and in the course of it, Damasippus says to Horace, "Adde poemata nunc, hoc est, oleum adde camino ..."⁵⁵ Bernard's cryptic "fert oleum focus" means that wine adds fuel to the fire of madness. (Damasippus means that Horace is mad already. If he goes on writing poetry he will get madder.)

In the De octo vitiis, Bernard says, "If you bring nothing to Rome, Plato, you will be thought stupid. Go away, Homer, unless you are generous in honouring Rome."⁵⁶ The meaning is not immediately obvious. He expects his readers to recognise the allusion to Ovid's comments which, although written in a different context, throw light on Bernard's meaning:

Ipse licet venias Musis comitatus, Homere,
Si nihil attuleris, ibis, Homere, foras.⁵⁷

In the De contemptu mundi, speaking of women who are not satisfied with one husband, Bernard says:

Tam sine lumine quam sine crimine vult fore quaeque,
Ter fore clinica quam semel unica diligit aeque.⁵⁸

He wants his readers to recognise the allusion to Juvenal:

Unus Iberinae vir sufficit? Ocius illud
Extorquebis, ut haec oculo contenta fit uno.⁵⁹

An even more fruitful allusion to Juvenal is contained in Bernard's "Tot nego sobria corda quot ostia reflua Nili."⁶⁰ Juvenal has:

Rara quippe boni: numerus vix est totidem, quot
Thebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili.⁶¹

The Nile had seven mouths, and Boeotian Thebes had seven gates. There is probably an allusion also to the Seven Sages, who were connected with the aphorism "nequid nimis," which is discussed below.

Another expression of Bernard's which is clarified by recognition of its source is "mors patet ultima linea rerum,"⁶² which derives from Horace's "mors ultima linea rerum est."⁶³ It does not mean that death is the final limit of all things. For Bernard, of course, it is not. The "linea" was a white rope drawn across the circus in chariot races. What Horace and Bernard mean is that death is the end of the race. Similarly, Bernard's "recta capescere"⁶⁴ takes on added significance when it is seen in the context of Horace's dialogue with one of his slaves, the point of which is that only the wise man is free.⁶⁵ So also, when Bernard says that the doctrine of the Trinity is worth explaining ten times ("decies repetita placebunt"⁶⁶) his meaning is enhanced when we recognise his reference to Horace's advice that some parts of a poem are designed to please only once, while others are intended to be read again and again ("decies repetita placebit.")⁶⁷ Again, Bernard's "foemina vipera" in his diatribe against women⁶⁸ calls to mind Juvenal's "duos una saevissima vipera coena," which refers to the story that Pontia, the daughter of Petronius, poisoned her own children.⁶⁹ And when Bernard says that there are many who resist the blandishments of the flesh, either because of their desire for heaven or from their fear of punishment ("formidine pene"), his verse resonates with Horace's sentiment that the good man acts from love of virtue rather than from fear of punishment ("formidine poenae").⁷⁰

In dealing with the theme of the corruption of the flesh,⁷¹ Bernard borrows to good effect the phrase "eburnea colla" from Ovid;⁷² the phrase "colla lactea" from Vergil;⁷³ and the phrase "cerea brachia" from Horace.⁷⁴ Similarly, a resonance of Horace can be heard in Bernard's line "sperne voluptates, nocet empta dolore voluptas,"⁷⁵ and again in:

Ira furor brevis est, animum rege. Qui nisi paret,
Imperat. Hunc frenis, hunc ratione tene.⁷⁶

But sometimes there is an element of tension as well as resonance. Thus, Horace has verses in favour of wine:

Quid non ebrietas dissignat? operta recludit,
spes jubet esse ratas, ad proelia trudit inertem;
sollicitis animis onus eximit, addocet artis.
fecundi calices quem non fecere disertum?
contracta quem non in paupertate solutum?⁷⁷

Bernard, while clearly calling attention to Horace's lines, puts drinking wine in the context of gluttony, and offers as disadvantages what Horace saw as advantages:

Ebrietas ludit, sua fundit, operta recludit,
Sollicitis animis onus aufert, gaudet opimis.
Tunc veniunt risus, tunc vox vaga, sermo relisus.
Tunc nova presumit, tunc pauper cornua sumit.
Fecundi calices fialeque ioci genitrices
Quem non exertum, quem non fecere disertum?⁷⁸

There is a reference here also to Ovid's Ars amatoria: "Tunc veniunt risus, tum pauper cornua sumit."⁷⁹ Neither Horace nor Ovid was castigating drunkenness, but Bernard presses their words into service. A similar example of tension is offered by Bernard's use, in two of his poems, of Horace's metaphor of the jug. "A new jug will keep for a long time the smell of anything with which it has been once filled."⁸⁰ Horace is advising Lollius to learn good things while he is young. Bernard is advising us to avoid, in the one case, relations with prostitutes and, in the other, sodomy. Bernard, that is to say, applies the metaphor in a totally different way.

Horace, in his second epistle, says that he has been re-reading the Iliad. He comments on Homer's skill in depicting good behaviour and bad, what is beneficial and what is harmful.

Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
planius ac melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit.⁸¹

His point is that Homer's work presents an admirable moral lesson. Bernard uses this passage to good effect in the De castitate. He explains, following Cassian,⁸² that, in order to avoid being troubled by unchaste dreams at night, we need to take great care to control our thoughts and words and deeds during the day.

Si quid mens pulchrum vel turpe vel utile vel non
Cogitat ante tronum, nocte aliquando videt.
Qualia luce gerit vel mente vel ore vel actu,
Talia respondent nocte relata sibi.⁸³

Bernard uses the expression "me vate" in the De octo vitiis.⁸⁴ He intends to call to mind Horace's use of the same phrase in a prominent position at the end of his sixteenth epode. Horace says, "from this age of iron an auspicious escape is granted to men who do their duty (piis), according to the oracle which I pronounce."⁸⁵ The reference is to the establishment of a new colony, under the leadership of a prophet who has consulted the oracles. Bernard, in phrases reminiscent of the p#nta .e" of Heraclitus, stresses the fluidity of things. He says, "The only thing about the world that does not change is its transience, according to the oracle which I pronounce (Orbis, me vate, sola constat levitate)." The resonance with Horace's "me vate" is in tension with the apparent pessimism of Bernard's message, yet the very use of the term "me vate" calls to mind Horace's assurance that there is, after all, a way of escape from the mutability of things. In a similar way, Bernard's "Cassaque lumine plenaque crimine corda gelantur"⁸⁶ seems to be in conflict with Vergil's "nunc cassum lumine lugent,"⁸⁷ which refers to the death of Palamedes, who is represented as good rather than selfish ("now he is dead they mourn him"). But Vergil puts the speech into the mouth of the deceitful and lying Solon, and it is that echo which we hear.

Bernard's classical allusions are for the most part apt, but there is the very occasional lapse. One may, for example, question the appropriateness of Bernard's reference to an eclogue of Vergil's, in the expression "levis igni cera liquescit" in De octo vitiis.⁸⁸ Bernard's point is that you cannot escape lust by resisting it. You must run away from it. The allusion to Vergil's description of a love charm⁸⁹ seems singularly inappropriate, unless a subtle irony is intended.

The In libros Regum offers another example. The Vulgate account of the three-storeyed annexes around the outside of Solomon's temple makes it clear that the roof beams of each floor did not pierce the walls of the temple. The walls of the temple were indented or stepped, and the beams rested on the steps. In consequence, the second storey of each annexe was larger in floor area than the first, and the third larger than the second.⁹⁰ Bernard gets this wrong.

Iam quinis latum cubitis summum tabulatum,
Sex medium, septem constitit inferius.
Sed primo medium, medio quoque discrepat imum.⁹¹

The allusion to Horace's Ars poetica adds to the confusion. Horace is talking about the poetic skill of Homer, and he makes the point that the Iliad starts "in medias res," and mixes truth with fiction, yet Homer gives the whole an air of probability and makes the beginning, middle and end exactly correspond.

atque ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet,
primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.⁹²

Horace is talking about three things that correspond, while Bernard is talking about three things that do not. Nor do Horace's words in any way illuminate the point Bernard is making. And he adds further confusion by quoting from Juvenal:

Omne etenim vicium tanto conspectius in se
crimen habet quanto grandior arce reus.⁹³

Juvenal appears to be saying no more than that the higher a criminal's social position is, the greater the public obloquy he suffers. Bernard is perhaps demonstrating his knowledge of Horace and Juvenal, but neither Horace's words nor Juvenal's elucidate his meaning. Rather, they hide it. Bernard appears, in this instance of unhelpful quotation, to be simply showing off his classical learning. One is tempted perhaps to think that allegorical interpretation of the Book of Kings does not lend itself to classical allusion. Yet, in the same poem, when he is dealing with Solomon's throne, Bernard has a very apt and explicit quotation from Horace:

Fortis et in se ipso totus teres atque rotundus
A Flacco sapiens scribitur egregie.
Multo magis sapiens de qua sapientia nata est.
Fortis et in se ipsa tota rotunda fuit.⁹⁴

Horace, in the passage which Bernard quotes, is putting the Stoic view that virtue is alone sufficient for happiness and that external things contribute nothing. The wise man relies solely on himself. He is like a polished globe, to which external substances cannot adhere.

Quisnam igitir liber? Sapiens sibi qui imperiosus,
quem neque pauperies neque mors neque vincula terrent,
responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores
fortis, et in se ipso totus, teres, atque rotundus,
externi ne quid valeat per leve morari,
in quem manca ruit semper fortuna.⁹⁵

The term "rotundus" in the Vulgate applies to the top of the throne of Solomon.⁹⁶ Bernard very neatly uses the quotation from Horace to elaborate and deepen his allegorical interpretation. Then he takes his allegory an inspired step further. If that is the characteristic of a wise person, how much wiser, then, was she from whom Wisdom itself was born? Mary, the mother of God, was indeed strong and self-reliant and polished.

There are, throughout Bernard's poems, a few occurrences of phrases which, if they are intended to refer to a classical source, are not apt. For example, Bernard speaks of the spells and the "tacta limina" of fortune-tellers.⁹⁷ That calls to mind Ovid's account of Cinyras' incest with his daughter Myrrha, "thalami jam limina tangit."⁹⁸ And Bernard uses the phrase "oscula jungit" of the papal legate's official kisses,⁹⁹ which echoes Ovid's "oscula jungat," referring to Clymnene kissing her daughters as they turn into trees.¹⁰⁰ Again, "sportula parva," which Bernard uses to mean funerary urns, echoes Juvenal's use of the phrase, meaning food baskets.¹⁰¹ But it is quite possible that Bernard intended no allusion in those cases.

With very few exceptions, Bernard's classical allusions are appropriate to the context in which he uses them, and they show that he understands the context from which they come. For example, the strong, wealthy, respected man dies and lies still, an inert corpse ("truncus iners jacet.")¹⁰² The reference is to Vergil's account of the death of Priam. "Jacet ingens litore truncus,/ avulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus."¹⁰³ The change from "ingens" to "iners" would seem to be deliberate (it is certainly meaningful); and Bernard's reflections on death and decay are enhanced by the allusion to the fall of Troy, as they are also in another place, where his "unica mortis imago"¹⁰⁴ echoes Vergil's "ubique pavor et plurima mortis imago."¹⁰⁵

Likewise, Bernard's use of the expression "cana Fides"¹⁰⁶ is clearly intended to call to mind Vergil's "Cana Fides et Vesta, Remo cum fratre Quirinus/ jura dabunt."¹⁰⁷ Bernard's lesson that venerable Faith is now dead and these are lawless times is reinforced by the reference to Jupiter's prophecy of the establishment of Roman law. And Bernard's adaptation of Ovid's leaden and golden arrows of Cupid is similarly helpful in conveying his meaning.¹⁰⁸ He twice quotes Ovid's "fera regnat Erinys" to great effect.¹⁰⁹ He quotes very effectively from Ovid in order to make the point that idleness aids concupiscence:

"Ocia si tollas, tollis stimulos" ait ille.
Cedit amor rebus, res age, tutus eris.¹¹⁰

Again, when Bernard uses the phrase "ignis edacibus uritur" to describe a wicked woman eaten by the fires of lust¹¹¹ he wants us to advert to the fire that destoyed Aeneas' house.¹¹² And when he uses the metaphor "stilla cavat lapidem"¹¹³ to refer to lust, he reminds us of Ovid's "gutta cavat lapidem," referring to time.¹¹⁴ And in his exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity, he explicitly cites Vergil: "Maro quidem dixit: `Numero deus inpare gaudet.'"¹¹⁵ This is from the same eclogue that gave us the strange allusion to the love charm, but this time it is especially apt, because Vergil's odd number is also the number three and it also has a mystical significance.

Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore
licia circumdo, terque haec altaria circum
effigiem duco; numero deus impare gaudet.¹¹⁶

Sometimes Bernard's classical allusions are thematic. His extensive use of the Golden Age and associated myths is explored in relation to allegory below, pages 362ff. Those myths play a specially important part in the second book of the De contemptu mundi and in the De octo vitiis, but allusions to them occur throughout the De contemptu mundi and there are oblique references in other poems. In the first book of the De contemptu mundi, for example, Bernard says:

Justitiae via nulla manet quia virgo recessit,
Cumque sororibus introeuntibus aethera cessit.¹¹⁷

The allusion is to the fall of the Golden Age, succeeded by the ages of bronze and iron, whereafter "the maiden Astraea, last of the immortals, abandoned the blood-soaked earth."

victa jacet pietas, et virgo caede madentis
ultima celestum terras Astraea reliquit.¹¹⁸

Bernard quotes the phrase "victa jacet pietas" in his De octo vitiis,¹¹⁹ where he also alludes to Astraea:

Ultima celestum non cernens virgo modestum
In terris aliquid terras Astrea reliquit.¹²⁰

In the third book of the De contemptu mundi, Bernard laments:

Sermo dei tacet, ordo perit ...
Per caput illius iste per istius ille licenter
Jurat et abnuit omne quod eruit irreverenter.¹²¹

Bernard expects us to recognise the allusion to the sixth satire of Juvenal. Chastity was a feature of the Golden Age. Some vestiges of it remained under Jove, but only while he was very young, before the Greeks had learned to swear by the other man's head.

... sed Jove nondum
Barbato, nondum Graecis jurare paratis
Per caput alterius ...¹²²

Juvenal continues with a reference to Astraea:

Paulatim deinde ad superos Astraea recessit
Haec [Pudicitia] comite, atque duae pariter fugere sorores.¹²³

Some allusions to the Golden Age myths are oblique. For example, towards the end of De octo vitiis, Bernard describes the riots in Rome at the time of his visit:

Aurum presumit, mox ferrum dextera sumit.
Auro ferroque bellum quod pugnat utroque
Durum succedit.¹²⁴

The reference is to Ovid's story of the myths, in the course of which he says:

Jamque nocens ferrum, ferroque nocentius aurum
prodierat, prodit bellum, quod pugnat utroque,
sanguineaque manu crepitantia concutit arma.¹²⁵

Similarly, Bernard is alluding obliquely to the same group of myths when he laments, "Quando malorum copia latior?"¹²⁶ When Juvenal laments in similar terms, he does so in the context of the myth of the Flood. Not since the time of Deucalion has there been such wickedness.

Et quando uberior vitiorum copia? Quando
Major avaritiae patuit sinus?¹²⁷

Another oblique reference to the same group of myths can be seen in Bernard's complaint about the depravity of his age:

Fraudat versutus, non hospes ab hospite tutus,
Non socer a genero, pax nec laicis neque clero.
Gratia rara patris genito, fratri quoque fratris,
Subjecto domini, nato de fronte patrini.¹²⁸

The allusion is to Ovid's account of the Age of Bronze.

Vivitur ex rapto; non hospes ab hospite tutus,
non socer a genero, fratrum quoque gratia rara est;
imminet exitio vir conjugis, illa mariti ... ¹²⁹

Another theme of Bernard's is the golden mean. He uses the expression "ne quid nimis" when he advises his Cluniac brethren in De octo vitiis not to overdo fasting: "Esto gule tortor, sed et hic ne quid nimis ortor."¹³⁰ That does not necessarily imply any knowledge of Terence. It is true that, in the Andria, a slave says to his master, "Nam id arbitror adprime in vita esse utile, ut nequid nimis."¹³¹ But the aphorism of the golden mean, mhd"n Ygan, was no doubt as common in Bernard's day as it was in Aristotle's or, indeed, today. Bernard was certainly interested in the concept of moderation. In De castitate he again, and at greater length, advises moderation in fasting. He quotes from Lucan:

Nos servare modum finemque modi retinere
His ipsis verbis pene poeta monet.¹³²

It is not clear how well Bernard knew Lucan's Pharsalia. He mentions Lucan in De octo vitiis,¹³³ and in the same poem there is another quotation:

Juge parat bellum quaciens Bellona flagellum.¹³⁴

Bernard is simply complaining about the scourge of war. Lucan is talking about Caesar, who is "like Bellona brandishing her bloody scourge" as he encourages his troops.¹³⁵ Caesar, for Lucan, is a bloodthirsty ogre, which is not Bernard's picture of him. But these few allusions do not amount to evidence of a good knowledge of Lucan. They are all the kinds of thing that readily find their way into anthologies or school books.

In pursuing the theme of moderation in De castitate, Bernard quotes also from Horace:

Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,
Ultra vel citra quod nequit esse bonum.
Insani sapiens nomen feret, equus iniqui,
Ultra quam satis est si velit esse bonus.¹³⁶

There is a mean in all things. There are, in fact, certain fixed limits, on either side of which there cannot be goodness. If he tries to be excessively good [beyond proper bounds] the wise man will be called foolish, the just man unjust.

This is a neat combination of two passages, one from the Satires, the other from the Epistles.¹³⁷ A few lines later, Bernard has:

Plusve minusve cavens medio tutissimus ibis,
Inter utrumque vola semper habendo modum.¹³⁸

This again is a neat combination of quotations from two differen poems, this time by Ovid. "Medio tutissimus ibis" is Sol's advice t his son Phaethon, about the best way to drive th chariot.¹³⁹ "Inter utrumque vola" is Daedalus' advice t his son Icarus about flying with his artificial wings.¹⁴⁰ Bernard alludes to those images in the course of his advice on preserving chastity. In a different context, he adverts again to "mediocritas aurea" in a passage in De octo vitiis in which he deals with the inevitability of death and decay. "All the earthly things we see are mutable. The good things we see are here today and snatched away tomorrow."¹⁴¹ He has interesting allusions to Vergil ("alba ligustra cadunt" and "nimium ne crede colori"¹⁴²) and the elder Pliny ("Lilia marcescunt. Cito cedunt que cito crescunt"¹⁴³). He continues:

Mors summum culmen, suprema ferit juga fulmen.
Pape papatum mors tolit, hero dominatum,
Longum quippe statum summis est ferre negatum.
Quo pede mors minimos calcat magnos et opimos.¹⁴⁴

Death strikes the highest height. The lightning strikes the tallest mountain. Death robs the Pope of his papacy; it robs the head of the household of his authority. Even the highest in the land cannot expect a lengthy term of office. The mighty and the wealthy are trampled by death's feet, just as are the least of us.

That looks like conventional "memento mori" preaching. But the reference to Horace gives it another dimension. Horace has:

... celsae graviore casu
decidunt turres feriuntque summos
fulgura montis.¹⁴⁵

Horace's point is that we should avoid both the ills of poverty and the excesses of wealth. Bernard's allusion calls to mind the lines in the previous stanza of the ode:

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.¹⁴⁶

The same theme recurs in Bernard's De octo vitiis. Speaking of the miser, he says:

Quantum pondus opum quantumque pecunia crescit,
Crescit amor nummi ...¹⁴⁷

The more his cash and the weight of his wealth grow, the more his love of money grows.

This looks like the conventional complaint about avarice, but it, too, contains a reference to "mediocritas aurea." What Bernard means to convey is that we should follow the golden mean between poverty and wealth. His source here is Juvenal:

Interea pleno quum turget sacculus ore,
Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crevit;
Et minus hanc optat, qui non habet.¹⁴⁸

When your purse is crammed full with gold, your love of money grows in proportion with your increased wealth. But the man who is not rich has no desire for more.

The point that Juvenal is making, and the point which Bernard's quotation draws attention to, is that the golden mean ordains that sufficiency consists in enough to meet the demands of cold and thirst and hunger,

In quantum sitis atque fames et frigora poscunt,
Quantum, Epicure, tibi parvis suffecit in hortis,
Quantum Socratici ceperunt ante penates.¹⁴⁹

The examples above show something of the scope and depth of Bernard's classical scholarship. They indicate the authors with whose works he demonstrates a degree of first-hand familiarity. They show some of the authors to whom he refers and topics which he addresses, without necessarily having direct knowledge of any classical text. That evidence of classical learning needs to be put in the context of his use of other sources. Bernard's chief sources, apart from the classics, were the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Fathers and various medieval writers, some of them his contemporaries. An attempt is made in the Appendix to quantify his use of those sources in comparison with his use of classical sources, and to compare his use of sources with that of John of Salisbury, using figures for John's work compiled by Jan van Laarhoven.¹⁵⁰

The easiest to quantify are quotations, whether acknowledged or not, as distinct from references or allusions. Classical quotations predominate in the De contemptu mundi and the De octo vitiis. Quotations from the Old Testament predominate in the In libros Regum, as one might expect from a commentary on the Book of Kings. The De Trinitate has the greatest number of quotations from the New Testament, from the Fathers and from medieval writers. The In libros Regum has nearly as many quotations from medieval writers as does the De Trinitate, because of Bernard's debt to Hrabanus Maurus in his commentary on the Book of Kings.¹⁵¹ Overall, quotations from the classics constitute less than twenty percent of quotations from all sources. They are significantly exceeded by quotations from the Old and New Testaments, and are exceeded even by quotations from medieval writers. Only the Fathers fare worse.

When all allusions and references are taken into account as well as quotations, classical sources and Old Testament sources loom larger, while other sources have somewhat less importance. The number of classical quotations and allusions varies, as one might expect, according to the subject of the poem. The De contemptu mundi is a satirical poem about scorn of worldly things; the De Trinitate is a doctrinal poem about the Trinity; the De castitate is about the virtue of chastity; the In libros Regum is a commentary on the Book of Kings; and the De octo vitiis is about the eight deadly sins, and is in some ways similar to the De contemptu mundi. The textual relationship between the two poems is discussed in Chapter 1, page 19. They contain by far the largest proportion of classical quotations and allusions. If the figures for De contemptu mundi and De octo vitiis were omitted, Bernard's classical lore would not seem so impressive, and would compare poorly with that of John of Salisbury.

Taking all of John's works and all of Bernard's poems,¹⁵² the proportion of classical quotations and allusions in John's works is about thirty-two percent, while that in Bernard's is about twenty-six percent. On that basis, Bernard bears comparison with one of the foremost classical scholars of his time. But John's work is predominantly prose, a factor which may affect the issue. John of Salisbury's one poem is Entheticus de dogmate philosophorum. It has an average of 0.11 classical quotations or references per line. In Bernard's poems, the figures range from 0.08 in the De octo vitiis to 0.01 in the In libros Regum.

Bernard's classical learning was not merely superficial. Some of his allusions are commonplaces, but many of them show a knowledge of texts and an understanding of the works of several classical writers. The classical authors with whom he was most familiar (Horace, Vergil, Ovid and Juvenal) appear to have been steady favourites up to Bernard's time. They are, for example, the authors most frequently cited by the writers included in Migne's Patrologia Latina.¹⁵³ Bernard not only knew these authors well himself, he also expected his readers to be sufficiently familiar with them to recognise his quotations and allusions, even to the extent that his meaning is sometimes far from clear unless they are recognised. But, although classical lore was important to him, it accounted, overall, for only about a quarter of his total resource, whereas the Vulgate accounted for more than a half.

The extent and depth of Bernard's classical learning are impressive. But it is perhaps worth while to consider classical writers who, on the evidence of manuscripts of their work copied in the eleventh or twelfth century, were well known in Bernard's time, but who are not mentioned by him, nor are their works quoted or alluded to. Birger Munk Olsen's catalogue reveals many such writers, of whom the following are a selection for the sake of example: Apuleius, Celsus, Columella, Florus, Frontinus, Aulus Gellius, Livy, Lucretius, Manilius, Martial, Cornelius Nepos, Petronius, Phaedrus, Plautus, Pliny the younger, Propertius, Publius Syrus, Quintilian, Sallust, Statius, Suetonius, Tacitus, Tibullus, Valerius Flaccus, Valerius Maximus, Vitruvius.¹⁵⁴ Several of these are quoted or alluded to in John of Salisbury's Entheticus major, namely: Apuleius, Florus, Frontinus, Aulus Gellius, Lucretius, Martial, Petronius, Publius Syrus, Quintilian, Sallust, Suetonius and Valerius Maximus. On the other hand, Bernard, in the course of his poems, mentions a number of writers whom John fails to mention, quote or allude to in the Entheticus, for example Caesar, Democritus, Demosthenes, Epicurus, Homer and Lucilius.¹⁵⁵

In respect of his classical learning, Bernard was evidently not untypical of the regular clergy of his time. Gerald of Wales offers a great deal of anecdotal evidence of ignorance of Latin on the part of the secular clergy,¹⁵⁶ but there are few such complaints about monks or nuns in the twelfth century. Bernard expects his monastic audience to recognise his classical allusions, which suggests that most Cluniac choir monks would, in fact, be able to appreciate them. The comparison with John of Salisbury suggests that Bernard, though not perhaps among the foremost classical scholars of his time, was not among the worst either. Since one of his favourite themes was mediocritas aurea, that seems entirely appropriate.

The classical learning of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Peter the Venerable, writing to Bernard of Clairvaux, praised the saint for his secular learning.

I know that you are as learned and well equipped in secular studies as in the far more useful study of the Scriptures. Since you left Egypt, you are so rich with the spoils of the Egyptians and the wealth of the Hebrews that your richness continues to replenish the poverty of others and you can provide the right solutions to problems.¹⁵⁷

Saint Bernard shows in his writings a knowledge of classical Latin literature, but it expresses itself in ways different from those we find in Bernard of Morlaix or John of Salisbury. Saint Bernard makes sparing use of direct quotation or allusion. In all of his works, Bernard Jacqueline has found only fifty quotations from classical authors. Thirteen are from Vergil (12 from Aeneid, 1 from Eclogues); ten are from Ovid (4 from Metamorphoses, the remainder from Remedia amoris, Epistolae ex Ponto, Fasti, and Amores); eight are from Horace (7 from Epistles, 1 from Odes); four are from Terence; three are from Juvenal; three from Persius; two from Cicero (both from Tusculae disputationes); two from Seneca; one from Tacitus; and one from Statius. Three of the quotations which Bernard Jacqueline counts as classical are from Boethius.¹⁵⁸

Compared with the classical scholarship of John of Salisbury, or even of Bernard of Morlaix, that may seem a meagre total. Certainly, Saint Bernard can be said to have had some knowledge of those authors, and it is probable that he had the same kind of classical education as had John of Salisbury and Bernard of Morlaix. But none of his quotations and allusions is used in a way that makes it clear that he was familiar with the context in which his author wrote, or with the whole of the work from which he quotes. Most of them are commonplaces. Jean Leclercq has analysed the literary aspects of Saint Bernard's works.¹⁵⁹ He points out that classical references in those works do not suffice to reveal a personal acquaintance with classical literature. It is not simply a matter of failing to give references for his quotations. "Le fait de ne pas donner de reference aux textes cites ou utilises ne prouve pas l'absence de culture, mais peut- etre seulement l'absence de pedantrie, d'autant que le "style noble" n'admettait guere de references precises."¹⁶⁰ But, with the possible exception of his use of a text of Cicero (of which Jean Leclercq remarks "Il reste que ce fut exceptionnel"), Saint Bernard's classical learning seems to be filtered through the writings of the Fathers, especially Jerome and Hrabanus Maurus, or through those of Boethius, or to have come from florilegia.¹⁶¹ Bernard calls himself "the chimera of his age," because he does not behave either like a cleric or like a layman.¹⁶² It is possible that he has in mind passages of Lucretius or Ovid, but the expression was also used by Jerome and others.¹⁶³

And yet Saint Bernard's Latin style is as strongly marked by the Latin classics as it is by the Vulgate and the Fathers, who are also rarely directly cited or quoted.

[Son style], dans son ensemble, leur est certainement redevable, dans une mesure qu'il est difficile de preciser ... Plutot que telles ou telles expressions, il semble qu'il faille tenir compte des caracteres generaux de l'oeuvre ecrite de saint Bernard: la qualite de sa latinite, son respect des genres litteraires, la precision du vocabulaire dont il use en ses prologues, son souci de la composition, ses modeles, tels qu'ils apparaitront bientot, portent a croire que des auteurs profanes ont exerce sur son esprit une influence reelle. Mais il l'a subie, il l'a recue a la maniere d'un genie, dont la tres vigoreuse personalite n'eprouve meme plus le besoin de se referer a ses predecesseurs: il les a depasses.¹⁶⁴

Brian Patrick McGuire makes a similar point, without making such a large claim for Saint Bernard's genius in kicking the empty pail:

Bernard, like many other twelfth-century writers, is difficult to catch making direct quotations from the Fathers or from classical literature. His language is always his own, with faint echoes of a thorough and intense training in Latin grammar but without the mark of individual authors.¹⁶⁵

Thomas Renna has examined Saint Bernard's attitude to classical learning. He concludes that Saint Bernard distinguished between monastic learning, on the one hand, as personal and experiential, and clerical learning, on the other hand, as related to service. He disapproved of the study of the artes liberales by cloistered monks, because such studies do not increase a monk's love, self-knowledge or humility, and because they are incompatible with the monk's peculiar way of knowing God. But he approved of the study of classical authors by clerics, because such studies can be used in the refutation of error and the instruction of Christians, and because they increase a prelate's effectiveness as an administrator and defender of the church's customs and rights. Only for monks did Saint Bernard oppose the study of pagan writings. He took it for granted that clerics must pursue classical studies in their preparation for pastoral work.¹⁶⁶

It was, as we saw, precisely because of its advantages in administration and pastoral work that Peter the Venerable praised Saint Bernard's secular learning. Saint Bernard was certainly a monk, but he was hardly cloistered. However much he may have preferred otherwise, he was very actively engaged in the world of politics and ecclesiastical administration. He exercised an extraordinary authority, perhaps greater than that of any ecclesiastic before or since.¹⁶⁷ He was a prime mover, for example, in such matters as healing the papal schism, opposing Abelard, resisting the Albigenses and preaching the crusade, and he exerted considerable influence also through his old pupil Pope Eugenius III. It may well be, as Peter the Venerable implied and as his own view of the value of classical learning suggested, that Saint Bernard's Latin culture was of value to him in these unmonastic affairs. But at the same time, his attitude towards secular learning may have had as much influence as the requirements of the noble style of the "doctor melifluus" in suppressing explicit allusions to and quotations from classical authors in his writings.

The classical scholarship of John of Salisbury is regarded as typical of twelfth-century humanism. The difficulties of the term "humanism," and especially of the loose and confusing way in which it is used in relation to the twelfth century, were discussed above, page 134ff. One aspect of that difficulty is illustrated by the fact that the scholarship of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, quite different from that of John of Salisbury, is also taken to be an expression of humanism. It is true that Charles Homer Haskins, though he discusses several aspects of Saint Bernard, does not appear to regard him as in any sense a humanist. He was "first and foremost a preacher, and a fundamentalist preacher at that ... Between a mystic like Bernard and a rationalist like Abaelard there was no common ground ..."¹⁶⁸ Haskins regards Peter Abelard as "the bright particular star" of the twelfth-century renaissance.¹⁶⁹ But later writers have seen Saint Bernard in a different light.¹⁷⁰

In the case of Saint Bernard, it cannot be any revival of classical learning or use of classical authors as "auctores," or even to embellish his prose, which makes him a humanist. It seems, rather, to be certain philosophical preconceptions that are attributed to Saint Bernard that make him a humanist. Emero Stiegman, for example, in a study of humanism in Bernard of Clairvaux, comes to the following conclusion:

If St. Bernard is, through a set of philosophical assumptions, a platonic spiritualist, he is, through the experiential depth of the saint and the unruly objectivity of the artist, a Christian humanist.¹⁷¹

Jean Leclercq, discussing monastic theology, comments that, despite the diversity of that theology, "the greatest figure, ... the one that dominated all others, was that of a Cistercian: St Bernard."¹⁷² He finds elements of humanism in that theology.

In short, the humanism of the monks consisted less in borrowing its means of expression from the writers of Antiquity than in preserving, developing, and analyzing Christian convictions about the dignity of man - a concept increasingly formulated during the middle ages in terms of "nobility." To these basically optimistic intuitions writers gave expression suffused with beauty and poetry. This confidence in man, this refinement of sensibility, this quality of language: are these not so many tokens of a true humanism?¹⁷³

But Saint Bernard's "humanism" is summed up somewhat differently by Irenee Valery-Radot:

A ses yeux, le seul humanisme digne de l'homme est celui que l'Epitre aux Ephesiens appelle "L'age de la plenitude du Christ" (Eph.IV,13), ou ayant enfin recouvre l'integrite de sa ressemblance divine, devenu un seul esprit et un seul corps avec le Fils, l'homme parfait, vir perfectus, recapitule en lui toute la Creation visible que sa chair resume et l'entraine, transfiguree, dans la Gloire eternelle du Pere qui lui a ete promise avant la constitution du monde.¹⁷⁴

The attempts to depict Saint Bernard as a humanist illustrate the difficulties of applying that term to the twelfth century. Saint Bernard, the chimera of his age, was exceptional in every respect. Bernard of Morlaix, by contrast, emerges as representative of his time in relation to his classical scholarship.

Actores and auctores

Twelfth century attitudes toward classical texts were not uniform. A.J. Minnis discusses a difference of opinion between Bernard of Chartres and his pupil William of Conches, which is recorded in an anonymous twelfth-century commentary on Juvenal. The commentator raises the question of the part of philosophy to which Juvenal's satires belong. He quotes Bernard of Chartres as stating that poetry does not treat of philosophy, but he says that William of Conches responded with a distinction between mere writers (actores) and writers who are authorities (auctores).¹⁷⁵

John of Salisbury regards classical writers as auctores. In the Entheticus major, he satirises those who have no respect for the classics.

So, unless you speak with words pleasing to children, the chattering crowd will spit in your face. If you savour the authors [auctores], if you refer to the writings of the ancients, in order to establish anything, if you wish perhaps to prove it, from all around they will shout: "What's this old ass aiming at?"¹⁷⁶

In the Metalogicon he says that we should show respect for the words of these authorities [auctores]; anyone who is ignorant of them is handicapped because they are very effective when used for proof or refutation.¹⁷⁷ He continues:

Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants in order to be able to see more and further than they can, not because of the sharpness of our own sight or the height of our own bodies, but because we are lifted up and carried high on their huge elevation.¹⁷⁸

This view of classical writers appears to have special associations with the School of Chartres.¹⁷⁹ Caesarius of Heisterbach reports more extreme views at Paris. In a dialogue between a monk and a novice, he has the novice ask what are the major errors of these men of Paris, so advanced in both knowledge and years. The monk replies:

They say that the body of Christ is no different in the bread of the altar than in other bread and in anything you like. And they say that God has spoken through Ovid just as he has through Augustine.¹⁸⁰

Bernard of Morlaix does not agree with the School of Chartres, let alone with the scholars of Paris. For the most part, classical authors are, for him, actores rather than auctores. In the De contemptu mundi, he addresses the issue of the teaching of the classics as compared with the teaching of the works of the fathers of the Church.

Who, nowadays, takes the trouble to ensure that Christian literature is taught as well as pagan literature, and to teach Christian verses which proclaim the truth and to commit them to memory? It is the man who is clever at disputation and who has quick, scholarly wits who seeks to be made abbot, not by good deeds, but by verbal dexterity. The mouth of such a man prates of Socrates and is twisted with sophisms. He boasts of his cleverness, and he aims at ecclesiastical preferment well beyond his deserving. He is made a bishop because of his knowledge of classical grammar and sophistry. He is not a bridge to heaven but rather a gateway to hell. He dabbles briefly in the lessons of the trivium and quadrivium, and then seeks high positions, walking proud and prowling like a lion. His ambition is unbridled. He knows about Agenor and Melibaeus [Philoctetes], he is familiar with the Sapphic metre, he has read Caesar's Civil war,¹⁸¹ he knows the story of Capaneus. Classical grammar, classical verse, classical comedy are nowadays very highly regarded. They are supposed to teach important moral lessons. By contrast, my Gregory [Saint Gregory the Great] is studied last of all and is quickly put aside, not meeting with approval. Yet his glory will have no end through all the ages. The world will sing his everlasting praise. His golden and fiery style will never die. He will always have followers who will make sure his pages are read. While Platos and Ciceros have been carried off to hell, Gregory has been taken up into heaven, where he lives in the bosom of the Godhead. He must be read again and again, in detail and faithfully, but pagan poetic styles must be rejected. It is disgraceful to mingle the teachings of Christ with pagan learning. Jupiter's fame will not last, but the fame and honour of Christ are pre- eminent.¹⁸²

To some extent, this is conventional denigration of classical learning, of the kind satirised by John of Salisbury. Robert Bultot finds it full of contradictions.

Bannir le style poetique des Gentils, n'est-ce pas pour Bernard se condamner lui-meme? Sans aucune doute, il vise la mythologie, les "fables", les sujets profanes, la recherche des beautes de la forme pour elles- memes. Echappe-t-il cependant, sur ce point, a toute contradiction? Sa conception d'une litterature chretienne est sincere et il a "christianise" Thalie, mais il est non moins manifeste qu'il se complait dans l'etude de l'Antiquite paienne et aime faire etalage de son erudition.¹⁸³

But the contradiction is not, perhaps, as great as it seems. In the context of the distinction between actores and auctores, it is clear that Bernard is not talking about a knowledge of classical writers. He takes that for granted, as part of the equipment of any educated person. Rather, he is saying that we should not regard classical writers as authorities. Only the Scriptures and the Fathers are auctores. The giants on whose shoulders we stand are the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers, rather than the classical writers of antiquity.¹⁸⁴ Nor, perhaps, is it altogether fair to suggest that Bernard takes pleasure in his classical learning and likes to display it. In very few of the instances quoted above was such motivation evident. In most cases, it was clear that Bernard was using his erudition to enhance his meaning. He used classical allusions and quotations from classical authors as an aid to communication, because that was the custom of his day. He was not parading an extraordinary erudition.

Bernard uses classical allusions in much the same way as we, today, might use allusions to Hamlet or The pilgrim's progress or The four quartets, not to display our learning, but to clarify and enhance the meaning we wish to convey, because everybody (that is to say, all of our intended audience) has read Shakespeare and Bunyan and Eliot. That is quite unlike the use of classical allusions recommended by John of Salisbury. We do not suppose that we are engaging in either proof or refutation, but we recognise that clarity of communication depends upon modes of presentation, and that we need to be aware of what our audience expects.

Bernard does not quote his classical sources in order to prove or refute. He does not regard them as authoritative. The point he wishes to make is sometimes conveyed through a disagreement with the writer he quotes. For example, he reinforces his description of hell by an explicit rejection of the picture presented in the Aeneid. The regimen of hell, he says, does not include Aeacus or Rhadamanthus or Cerberus or Charon or Orpheus or Typhoeus or Sisyphus or Prometheus.¹⁸⁵ Nor are the Elysian Fields in hell.¹⁸⁶ Vergil does not, in fact, mention Aeacus or Sisyphus. He does mention Typhoeus and Prometheus, but not in Book 6 of the Aeneid. Bernard is using Vergil in order to criticise a version of classical mythology.¹⁸⁷ It is clear that he does not regard Vergil (whom he quotes extensively throughout his poems) or classical lore as having any kind of authority.

Similarly, Bernard is at pains to contradict Horace. "Falso Flaccus ait `Nihil omni parte beatum.'"¹⁸⁸ Just as he uses his rejection of Vergil's account of hell to reinforce his own account, so he denies Horace's dictum that nothing is good in all respects in order to give greater force to his praise of Mary, who is altogether good. Again, in relation to the prophets and apostles, he says that they "stand foursquare, good in all respects."¹⁸⁹

But even when he is not concerned to disagree with his source, Bernard does not, as is clear from the examples above, use them to prove or refute, but to illuminate or clarify his point. There is one exception. Bernard does regard Horace as an authority in the area of literary composition. In the prologue to the De contemptu mundi, he writes:

I must admit that Horace, too, in order to instruct his students, the Pisos, and also in order to restrain those of us who, as he puts it, "write poems all over the place, whether we are educated or not"¹⁹⁰ - I must admit, I say, that Horace, in his Ars poetica, expressed the same opinion as myself. He taught that a work should be subjected to correction for a long time, with many erasures and amendments to bring it to a perfect finish ten times,¹⁹¹ and that publication of it should be suppressed for eight years.¹⁹² Yet there are those who are so imprudent, indeed impudent, as to produce and publish the brain-children they have indiscriminately written. Such people are "ever learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth."¹⁹³ They disdain the judgement of others, quite satisfied with their own judgement, and they think they know something.¹⁹⁴

There is no doubt that this passage, in some sort, presents Horace as an authority, and uses what he says to prove a point. But it is significant that it is put forward with considerable hesitation. The repetition of "Mentior si non etiam Flaccus Oratius" and "mentior, inquam, si non et Flaccus" is equivalent to, "Well, he's not really an authority, but perhaps it's worth mentioning that Horace says ..." And, to drive home his point securely, Bernard feels obliged to bring up the heavy guns of Scripture. Another context in which Bernard uses Horace as an authority is that of the value of saying things in verse. Again in the prologue of the De contemptu mundi, he writes:

It is not surprising that I write in verse. "Poets want either to instruct or to entertain, or both, and to say things honourable and suitable to life."¹⁹⁵ The fact is that what is written and published in poetic form is more gladly listened to and more avidly read, and for that reason is more readily committed to deep memory.¹⁹⁶

Bernard uses the same allusion to Horace in the Carmina de Trinitate,¹⁹⁷ where he follows it with a further Horatian quotation, "The poet who mixes the useful with the sweet gains unqualified applause."¹⁹⁸ But in both cases he is careful not to rely upon Horace alone to justify his use of verse. He points out that parts of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are presented in verse form.¹⁹⁹

But Horace is the only exception. He is the only classical writer whom Bernard regards as an auctor, and then only in relation to literary composition. The examples above indicate that Bernard's classical quotations are meant to illuminate and decorate, not to prove or refute. Of course, many of his quotations from the Scriptures and the Fathers serve exactly the same purpose. For example, when he writes, "Est radix omnis meroris avaricie vis,"²⁰⁰ the allusion to Saint Paul's letter²⁰¹ is intended to adorn his argument about Rome's avarice, rather than to demonstrate it. And when he writes "A contrite heart will awaken Jesus when he is asleep,"²⁰² the allusion to Matthew's gospel²⁰³ and to Psalm 50²⁰⁴ is meant to get Pope Eugenius in the right frame of mind rather than to prove anything. We are expected to recognise the allusion, and the very fact of recognition establishes that we have a shared heritage. We belong, as it were, to the same club, and recognition of our fellowship assists communication. In that respect, Bernard's Scriptural and patristic allusions are not different from his classical allusions.

But there is another dimension to Bernard's quotations from and allusions to the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. Some of the manuscripts of the De contemptu mundi carry a gloss which conveniently illustrates the way in which Scriptural and patristic allusions and quotations have a function additional to that performed by classical allusions and quotations.

The author reinforces his opening lines with the authority of the Apostle John, who said, "Little children, it is the latest hour."²⁰⁵ By preferring the Apostle's words to his own, he captures the reader's good will.²⁰⁶

That neatly encapsulates the double function of many of Bernard's Scriptural and patristic quotations and allusions. On the one hand, they are designed to capture the reader's goodwill; on the other hand, they are endowed with authority, which buttresses the point Bernard is making. They are often quite explicitly designed to prove a point. When he wants to convince us of the reality of the fires of hell, Bernard says:

I am not making all this up ... What I say is proven. God will make the wicked "as an oven of fire,"²⁰⁷ as David said, referring to those who are friends of this world ... Both [Jesus, who is] God made man, and Job, who was so sorely tested, tell us that sinners are punished for their offences. A person who is exceedingly sinful and who willingly maintains his inner darkness will be "cast into the exterior darkness,"²⁰⁸ as God has assured us. If you do not weep in this world, you will have "weeping and gnashing of teeth"²⁰⁹ in the next ... There is positive proof that there will be punishment by cold and fire for sinners who perish and pay for their deeds. Mark well the Book of Job, for Job also says in his sacred verses that a swift transition drives them from snow to fire.²¹⁰ This evidence is impregnable, so my pen's flank is covered, as if it were well protected by king, attendant, prince and soldier.²¹¹

The works of the Fathers as well as the words of Scripture are quoted as authorities. In his introduction to the De Trinitate, Bernard writes:

As far as I could I have "raised my voice amid the rocks"²¹² and have expressed in verse form not only the meaning but the very words of the Fathers.²¹³

Bernard uses Scriptural texts to support his teaching on the Trinity. "Per David et Paulum vel plures dicta probemus."²¹⁴ But the Fathers, especially Augustine, are also paraphrased extensively throughout the poem, and Boethius features largely. Throughout Bernard's poems, the Old and New Testaments, the writings of the fathers and even of others such as Boethius and Hrabanus Maurus, are treated as authoritative in a way that the writings of classical authors are not.

In the context of the total range of literary sources which he uses, Bernard's classical learning may be roughly quantified as constituting about a quarter of his resource, while the Vulgate provides about a half and the balance is made up of the Fathers and medieval writers. Qualitatively, the Latin classics are important as an element in communication, but classical writers do not have, for Bernard, the same authority as Scripture or the Fathers or even some medieval writers.

Greek scholarship

Bernard's classical learning is essentially Latin. H.C. Hoskier's opinion that Bernard "is not unacquainted with Greek" is based on the fact that he "sometimes uses Greek words."²¹⁵ It is certainly true that Bernard makes extensive use of Greek words. Some of them are classical Latin borrowings, which one might expect to have been part of Bernard's Latin vocabulary. For example, in his description of a soldier, he writes, "castra perambulat, omnia strangulat, estque cerasta."²¹⁶ "Cerasta" undoubtedly derives from kerastes, but the word is used by Pliny to mean a horned worm. Bernard is more likely to have got it from Ovid (for whom the Cerastae were a horned people of Cyprus) or from Lucan.²¹⁷ Again, he uses the word "cymba" (from kumbe) for Charon's boat, but he no doubt got that from Vergil.²¹⁸ Similarly, Bernard uses crocodilus (from krokodeilos),²¹⁹ cumbalum (for cymbalum, from kumbalon),²²⁰ dragma (for drachma, from drachme),²²¹ hylaris (for hilaris, from hilaros),²²² phiala (from phiale),²²³ phreneticus (from phrenetikos),²²⁴ rumbus (for rhombus, here meaning "turbot," from rhombos),²²⁵ scyphus (from skuphos),²²⁶ and zona (from zone).²²⁷ All these, and many other Greek words which enrich Bernard's vocabulary were already absorbed into Latin usage in classical times.

Some of Bernard's Greek words derive from the Vulgate. Gazofylacium (from gazophulakion),²²⁸ for instance, which Hoskier gives as an example of Bernard's knowledge of Greek, is found in 4 Kings 12,9. Likewise, dechachordum (from dekachordon)²²⁹ is found in Psalms 91,4; mechia (for moechia, from moicheia)²³⁰ is found in Matthew 5, 27-28 and elsewhere; pseudopropheta (from pseudoprophetes)²³¹ is found in Matthew 24,11; allegoria (derived from allegoreo)²³² is found in Galatians 4,24; zelus (from zelos)²³³ is found in Numbers 25,11; helemosina (for eleemosyna, from eleemosune)²³⁴ is found in Matthew 6,2; and thinus (for thyinus, from thuinos)²³⁵is found in 3 Kings 10,11 and in Apocalypse 18,12.

The Latin Fathers provide another source for Bernard's Greek words. An example which Hoskier advances to demonstrate Bernard's knowledge of Greek is monomachia (from monomachia).²³⁶ It is found in Cassiodorus. And castrimargus (for gastrimargus, from gastrimargos)²³⁷ is found in Ambrose, though "gaster" is a classical borrowing. Similarly found in the Latin Fathers are anagoge (from anagoge);²³⁸ antiphona (from antiphonos);²³⁹ necromantii (derived from nekromanteia);²⁴⁰ paranymphus (from paranumphos);²⁴¹ flemma (for phlegma, from phlegma);²⁴² usia (from ousia);²⁴³ idolatres (for idololatres, from eidololatres);²⁴⁴ and theoricus (from theorikos).²⁴⁵ Presbyter (from presbuteros) is common in the Latin Fathers. The variation "presbyterissa" may be Bernard's coinage.²⁴⁶

Bernard uses the word atomus (from atomos).²⁴⁷ In its primary sense, it is a classical borrowing. In the sense in which Bernard uses it, "a moment of time," it is found in Tertullian. In the De castitate servanda, Bernard puns on the word agnus: "Agnos agnus amat."²⁴⁸ The word play entails the Greek word hagnos, meaning "pure." The same pun appears in the De Trinitate: "Misterio magno datur agnis agnus in agno."²⁴⁹ This is strongly reminiscent of a passage from Hildebert of Lavardin's penitential prayer before celebration of the Eucharist: "Mysterio magno proprians sis agnus in agno."²⁵⁰ Bernard twice uses the image of the "littera Pythagorea," that is to say, the letter gamma, which represents the divergent paths of good and evil.²⁵¹ The same image appears in both Persius and Ausonius. Likewise, tetragonalis (derived from tetragonon)²⁵² is found in Ausonius and Boethius.

Those examples may suffice to show that Bernard's Greek was filtered through a Latin literary tradition. His vocabulary included many words which derive from the Greek, but there is no evidence that he had any knowledge of the Greek language. Nor is there evidence that he had any intimate knowledge of classical Greek literature, even in translation. The examples of his classical allusions and quotations which were analysed above show that he had no direct acquaintance with the works of any Greek classical writer. Such knowledge as he shows comes occasionally, perhaps, through translation or epitome,²⁵³ but more frequently through references in his Latin sources. Even his quotations from the Septuagint are taken from John Cassian's Latin translation from the Greek.²⁵⁴

Birger Munk Olsen says that the two most frequently mentioned characteristics of John of Salisbury's humanism are his excellent Latin, in an exquisite style, and his vast erudition.²⁵⁵ John was not primarily a poet. Helen Waddell, though she has a lot to say about him, does not mention the Entheticus in her Wandering scholars, nor is it represented in F.J.E. Raby's Oxford book of medieval Latin verse. His poetry is of a different kind from that written by Bernard of Morlaix. The Entheticus is written entirely in regular elegiac couplets. John does not draw upon the range of verse forms available to him, and so skilfully exploited by Bernard of Morlaix or by others such as Hildebert of Lavardin or Peter Abelard. He makes no use of rhyme. His style, as regards prosody and grammar, is more classical than Bernard's. It is also more classical as regards vocabulary. But Bernard's vocabulary is extraordinarily rich. It is true that an inflected language like Latin lends itself to rhyme, but the demands of the rhyme forms chosen by Bernard²⁵⁶ would put a severe strain on a strictly classical vocabulary. It is that factor, rather than any knowledge of the Greek language or interest in Greek learning, that accounts for the large number of Greek words in Bernard's poems.

John of Salisbury was "in all the Latin literature that was accessible to him ... obviously the best-read scholar of his age."²⁵⁷ In respect of his attitude toward the authority of classical writers, Bernard was in some ways like, and in other ways unlike John. In a similar manner, in respect of his knowledge of Greek, Bernard was in some ways like, and in other ways unlike John. Like Bernard, John of Salisbury knew no Greek.²⁵⁸ But, while there is no evidence that Bernard ever tried to learn Greek, or thought it important to do so, John made an attempt to learn the language, though "he never professes to have read any Greek without such assistance [as that provided by John Saracenus]."²⁵⁹ Unlike Bernard, John was familiar with classical Greek literature, even if only in Latin translation.

Only the Latin book produces that type of educated man whom John thinks fit to master political tasks by moral and intellectual strength; Greek literature therefore, in spite of the overwhelming importance of its philosophers, seemed to belong to a strange and antagonistic world. What John knew and read of Plato and Aristotle was derived from Latin reports and Latin translation.²⁶⁰

John devotes more than 300 lines of the Entheticus to notes on the Greek philosophers. He discusses Arcesilas, Zeno, Pythgoras, Socrates, Anaxagoras, Aristotle and Plato.²⁶¹ He is interested in questions of the certainty of human knowledge, cosmology, natural philosophy, the origin of the human soul and ethics, the last two being the most important for him. He gives most space to Plato (or rather to Neoplatonism). Of Aristotle, he says, "If anyone is not of the opinion that Aristotle is to be considered as the first, he does not render the tribute worthy to his merits."²⁶² But John owes more to Cicero than to the Greek philosophers. "The Latin world held nothing greater than Cicero; compared to his eloquence Greece was dumb. Rome pits him against all the Greeks or shows him off."²⁶³ As Birger Munk Olsen comments, "Bien qu'il soit heritier de la tradition platonicienne de l'ecole de Chartres, et propagateur et commentateur enthousiaste de la logique aristotelicienne, Jean de Salisbury se range resolument dans la tradition latine."²⁶⁴

Likewise, Walter of Chatillon was no doubt well aware of the interest in Greek philosophy developing in the schools of Paris and Chartres. But his Alexandreis shows no direct knowledge of Greek language or literature. All his sources are Latin. "Walter knew very little about the Greece whose world empire he conjured up to challenge that of Rome and its heirs."²⁶⁵

Like John of Salisbury, Peter Abelard, who also knew no Greek,²⁶⁶ thought himself to be in the tradition of Isidore of Seville, who maintained that Latin, Greek and Hebrew held a special position among languages:

There are three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and they are supreme through all the world. For it was in these three languages that the charge against the Lord was written above the cross by Pilate. Wherefore, because of the obscurity of the Holy Scriptures, a knowledge of these three languages is necessary, in order that there may be recourse to a second if the expression in one of them leads to doubt of a word or its meaning.²⁶⁷

Peter Abelard recommended the study of the three sacred languages to the nuns at the Paraclete, urging them to follow the example of their abbess, Heloise:

You have in your abbess a role-model who can satisfy all your needs, both as an example of virtue and as a teacher of scholarship. She is familiar not only with Latin but also with Hebrew and Greek literature, and she is the only woman in this age who has attained that skill in the three languages.²⁶⁸

Peter wrote a letter to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, saying that Heloise had told him "with great joy" about Saint Bernard's visit to the Paraclete. He had, she said, encouraged her and her sisters "like an angel rather than a man," but had been somewhat disturbed by the form of the Lord's prayer which the nuns recited in their office, for which Peter was responsible. Peter proceeds to a lengthy justification of his choice of the Matthew version against the Luke, the point at issue being the discrepancy between "panem nostrum supersubstantialem" (Matthew 6,11) and "panem nostrum quotidianum" (Luke 11,3). Luke, says Peter, had his version from Saint Paul, but neither Luke nor Paul was present when Jesus gave the prayer to the apostles. What Luke records is the version Jesus gave to "the crowd in the plains." "I do not argue that Luke lied," Peter writes. "Let him not be angry with me for preferring Matthew to him." Matthew, he says, wrote in Aramaic.²⁶⁹ The Greek translation of Matthew's Aramaic says ton arton humon, ton epiousion (which Peter says means "our supersubstantial bread") and his version is to be preferred to Luke's, which was written in Greek.²⁷⁰

But epiousios does not mean "supersubstantial." It means "for the coming day," and derives from epeimi: he epiousia hemera means "the coming day." There is no connection with ousia. Furthermore, Luke's version uses exactly the same phrase, ton arton humon ton epiousion. If epiousios means "supersubstantial" in Matthew, then it should in Luke also. The difference occurs only in the Vulgate, where Matthew's Greek is translated "supersubstantialem" while Luke's identical Greek is translated "quotidianum." Peter, that is to say, not only mistranslated the Greek. He clearly was not familiar with the text of the Greek New Testament, not even the Gospels, and it does not appear to have occurred to him to check it. His elaborate and ingenious justification of his preference for Matthew is based on a variation in the Vulgate which has no relation to the Greek (or to any supposed Aramaic) text. All of this throws doubt also upon Heloise's knowledge of Greek. If Heloise were the Greek scholar that Peter made her out to be, she would have known the Greek Gospels. She would not meekly have passed on Bernard's complaint, nor would she have accepted Peter's explanation.²⁷¹

Gaufridus, sub-prior of Ste-Barbe-en-Auge, maintained that a monastery without a library is like a castle without an armoury.²⁷² But the catalogues of twelfth century libraries do not show any strength in collections of Greek materials. The catalogue of the library at Cluny, for example, shows no Greek books,²⁷³ nor does the catalogue of the library at Bec.²⁷⁴ Neither the Cluniacs nor the Cistercians made any great effort to foster Greek studies. There was nothing comparable, for example, with Peter the Venerable's commission of a translation of the Koran from Arabic.

In the cathedral schools of the high Middle Ages, out of which the universities then grew, Greek played a remarkably unimportant role. The new translations from Greek executed during the high Middle Ages were, to be sure, of great and often decisive importance in the intellectual history of the West: not only Aristotle's Logica nova but also John of Damascus' De fide orthodoxa, for instance, circulated with unprecedented speed and range. But this intellectual material was taken ready-made from the translators, in most cases Italians: it evoked no interest in the Greek original. North of the Alps, no one but Dionysius the Areopagite could entice one to study a Greek text. In the twelfth century, the West found its own great model: Rome became the ancestor of the new culture, and Greece receded into the distance of antiquity.²⁷⁵

It was Hugh of Saint Victor who translated Dionysius the Areopagite.²⁷⁶ But his pupil Richard of Saint Victor denigrated Greek studies, arguing the superior merits of spiritual contemplation over philosophy. "Quid tale Aristoteles, quid tale Plato invenit, quid tanta philosophorum turba, tale invenire potuit?"²⁷⁷ Philip de Harveng admitted that knowledge of Greek and Hebrew writings came to his contemporaries not by use of the languages but indirectly through the Fathers.²⁷⁸ The sorry list of Greek references that have been culled from the whole seventy volumes of the Patrologia Latina for the twelfth century bears further witness to the paucity of Greek learning and the essential Latinity of the period.²⁷⁹

But if, as N.G. Wilson comments, "In western Europe during the middle ages Greek was not generally known,"²⁸⁰ it would appear to be equally true that in Byzantium during the twelfth century Latin was not generally known. For Byzantium, too, renaissances are claimed. Sir John Edwin Sandys, in an analysis of Byzantine scholarship, asserts:

For it must be remembered that, for the revival of Greek learning, we are indebted not only to the Greek refugees who in the middle of the fifteenth century were driven from Constantinople to the hospitable shores of Italy, or even to the wandering Greeks of the previous century. The spirit of the Renaissance was at work in Constantinople at a still earlier time.²⁸¹

He gives various examples, from Photius in the ninth century onwards, noting that "under the Comneni (1057-1185) and the Palaeologi (1261-1453), the humanistic spirit is unmistakenly prominent" and argues that historians of the Renaissance must in the future go back as far as Moschopulus and Planudes.²⁸² But his own study of Byzantine scholarship shows that there was scant attention to Latin learning. In the twelfth century, he discusses Tzetzes, Anna Comnena, Theodorus Prodromus, Eustanthius and Michael Acominatus, and it is clear that their extensive classical scholarship included no Latin writers.²⁸³ It is not until we come to Maximus Planudes, in the thirteenth century, that we find a Latin scholar. He translated Caesar, Cicero, Ovid, Donatus and Boethius.²⁸⁴ N.G. Wilson remarks upon this "very unusual accomplishment."²⁸⁵

In the twelfth century, the literary tradition of Byzantium was Greek in the same way that the literary tradition of Europe was Latin. Indeed, the scholars of Constantinople, who called themselves "Romans," would seem to have had less familiarity with classical Latin literature than the scholars of Europe had with classical Greek literature. In neither case was the literary culture seen as a revival or renewal. The difficulties of the concept of "renaissance" when applied to the twelfth century, which were touched upon above, pages 134 ff., are evident in this context.

The poems of Bernard of Morlaix illustrate the essential Latinity of twelfth-century European learning. He was well versed in classical Latin lore, but had no Greek. In that respect, he was a man of his time, for very few of his contemporaries were Greek scholars. Nor was the depth and breadth of his Latin learning exceptional. A knowledge of classical Latin authors was regarded as part of the mental equipment of an educated person. Bernard's poems also illustrate the perception that twelfth-century scholars had of the continuity of the Latin literary tradition.

A genuine tradition

Eric Hobsbawm distinguishes between genuine traditions and invented traditions. He argues that the very appearance of movements for the defence or revival of a tradition indicates a break in tradition. "Such movements ... can never develop or even preserve a living past ... but must become "invented tradition." Where the old ways are alive, traditions need be neither revived nor invented."²⁸⁶ The self-conscious Renaissance of the fifteenth century may be seen as a matter of invented tradition - a rediscovery of a classical tradition no longer felt to be living.²⁸⁷ In the twelfth century, in important respects, "the old ways" were perceived as being still alive. Bernard did not regard his classical scholarship as any kind of revival or renewal. A classical Latin education is something he took for granted, and one of his allusions to Juvenal suggests that he regards it as forming part of a continuous tradition of education from classical times.²⁸⁸

His familiarity with classical Latin authors does not spring from any effort to rediscover them. He does not even reinterpret them. His readings of his classical sources are invariably literal, in contrast to some of John of Salisbury's interpretations. John reads meanings into the Aeneid which Vergil would not have comprehended. He even goes so far as to find a Christian significance in the golden bough. "John concludes by affirming the role of that grace unknown to Vergil: the tree of knowledge is to be identified ultimately as Christ and the Cross. At these moments at the end of the Policraticus we see an essential dimension of John as classical scholar, seeking profound Christian truths hidden in the literature of pagan antiquity, particularly in its poetry."²⁸⁹ Bernard sees no such profound truths hidden in his classical sources. Even his complex allegory involving the Golden Age²⁹⁰ entails no reinterpretation of the classical myths. Although he makes use of it in his allegory, he accepts the Golden Age as being literally and historically true, as others, like Otto of Freising, did also.

Bernard took for granted a continuity between the classical Latin world and his own world of the twelfth century. It was not that he did not recognise the fact that great social and political changes had occurred. He did not, for example, have any belief in the continuity of the Roman Empire. Lamenting the wickedness of Rome, he says that it was made great and famous by the Catos, the Scauri and the Scipios, and when its secular power was broken, it became even stronger under the rule of Christ. It flourished and was wealthy in pagan times, but in Christian times it lost its secular power and became, in material terms, weak and poor.

Although you are poor, you are wealthier than a rich city; although you are weak, you are stronger than a powerful city; although you have been demolished, you stand taller than an intact city, through the gift of the cross of Christ. Under Jupiter, you conquered foreign nations; under Christ, you conquered hell ... City without equal under the rule of Caesar and the Senate, you do not follow the eagles now, but rather the light of the cross ... Peter is greater than the Caesars and God is greater than the pagan gods ... Rome was given to Peter. Peter's preaching sowed the seeds of its development and made it subject to Christ.²⁹¹

The sense of history, of continuity and change, which Bernard displays in his treatment of Rome is similar to that shown by Hildebert of Lavardin, whose well known poems about Rome clearly influenced Bernard.²⁹² He goes on to berate the Rome of his own day for its greed and Simony. He sees change rather than continuity in the progression from the secular glories of pagan Rome, through the spiritual glories of apostolic times, to the degeneration of his own time. But at the same time he expresses a literary tradition which he sees as continuous.

"Rome, you have perished," he complains. "You have fallen, your walls overthrown (obruta moenibus), your way of life overthrown (obruta moribus)."²⁹³ The allusion to the Aeneid reminds us of Jupiter's prophecy that Aeneas will establish for his warriors "a way of life and walls for their defence."²⁹⁴ Vergil's narration of Jupiter's prophecy continues, outlining the history of Rome up to the time of Julius Caesar, when a period of peace will commence. "The Gates of War shall shut, and safe within them shall stay the godless and ghastly Frenzy..."²⁹⁵ Bernard uses this imagery when he contrasts the evils of his day with the innocence of the Golden Age. "Wherever I go, I meet godless frenzy, both inside and outside."²⁹⁶ Again, when Bernard is dealing with the transience of the flesh, he writes, "Your feet run quickly toward wickedness and you have your eye upon a woman, but your milky neck (colla lactea) and your waxen arms (brachia cerea) have become completely putrid."²⁹⁷ The milky neck recalls Vergil's account of the depiction of the Gauls upon the shield of Aeneas, with their milky necks and golden hair.²⁹⁸ The waxen arms recall Horace's account of Lydia's praise of Telephus, with his waxen arms (although he had a rosy neck).²⁹⁹ In all these cases, Bernard alludes to the historical traditions of Rome, but it is not any continuity of history or society which interests him. He exemplifies the continuity of a literary tradition.

Another aspect of Bernard's involvement in the Latin literary tradition is his prosody. He was familiar with classical metrical forms, but was by no means restricted to them. The twelfth century saw remarkable new developments in metre and rhyme. That topic is explored in the next chapter.

¹De octo vitiis, 224-229.
²Epistles, 1,2,57-61.
³Carmina Burana 13. (Carmina Burana, ed. Alfons Hilka and Otto Schumann, Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1930, vol.1, part 1., p.30.)
⁴Commentary on Galatians, PL 26, 417.
⁵De octo vitiis, 233-236, 254-255.
⁶Only one manuscript is recorded (Birger Munk Olsen, L'etude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe etXIIe siecles, Paris, Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1982-1989, 4v., v.1, p.88).
⁷De contemptu mundi, 2,525.
⁸Catullus, 66,83.
⁹De contemptu mundi, 2,805-807. Cato is probably M. Porcius Cato, who is lauded by Lucan, rather than his great- grandfather.
¹⁰De octo vitiis, 1142; Vergil, Aeneid, 5,126.
¹¹De contemptu mundi, 1,644.
¹²De contemptu mundi, 2,835; Juvenal, 3,239-240.
¹³De contemptu mundi, 1,949; Juvenal, 10,125 ("divina Philippica").
¹⁴De contemptu mundi, Prologus; Ovid, Ex Ponto, 4,2,36.
¹⁵De contemptu mundi, 2,803; Ovid, Tristia, 3,12,36.
¹⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,973; De octo vitiis, 1398- 1399; De Trinitate, 1391.
¹⁷Ovid, Ars amatoria, 1,772.
¹⁸Horace, Odes, 1,7,32.
¹⁹Ovid, Ex Ponto, 2,4,23.
²⁰Vergil, Aeneid, 6, 714 and elsewhere.
²¹De contemptu mundi, 1,805; Horace, Satires, 1,2,90-91. Carmina de Trinitate 1273; Horace, Ars poetica, 437.
²²De contemptu mundi 1,533; Ovid, Tristia, 4,7,12.
²³De contemptu mundi, 3,822.
²⁴Vergil, Aeneid, 4,123. "Diffugient comites et nocte tegentur opaca." Vergil refers to the attendants of Dido and Aeneas, scattered in the storm.
²⁵But, as Robert K. Merton remarks, "If we were to assemble in one place all the knowledge and understanding with which Lord Macaulay variously endows his fourteen-year-old schoolboy, we would find this astonishing youth a veritable sage ... " (On the shoulders of giants; a Shandean postscript, New York, Free Press, 1965, p.147.)
²⁶De octo vitiis, 147-154.
²⁷De contemptu mundi, Prologus.
²⁸Juvenal, 1,15-17.
²⁹Edward Schroder, "Ein niederrheinischer Contemptus mundi und seine Quelle," Nachrichten von der Koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen: Philologische- historische Klasse aus dem Jahr 1910, Berlin, Weidmannsche, 1910, p.342.
³⁰Kimon Giocarinis, "Bernard of Cluny and the antique," Classica et mediaevalia, 27(1966):345-346.
³¹But Bernard is fond of the expression "Venus ebria," which he borrows from Juvenal. (De contemptu mundi, 2,52 and 55 and 647; 3,831; Juvenal, 6,300.) And he probably took "Venus in venis" (De castitate, 4; De octo vitiis, 497) from Ovid, Ars amatoria, 1,244, where "venis" is a variant reading for "vinis."
³²De contemptu mundi, 2,656; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8,20.
³³Vivis iners homo, nomen habes Dromo, si bene vivis./ Si male, rex eris, aequiparaberis ordine divis. De contemptu mundi, 3,134. On "nequid nimis," see below, p.271ff.
³⁴De contemptu mundi, 2,549. There may be an allusion here to Juvenal, 2,37.
³⁵De contemptu mundi, 3,282-283.
³⁶Maurice Keen, Chivalry, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1984, p.155.
³⁷De octo vitiis, 389. "Ad dare durescit."
³⁸De octo vitiis, 410-412.
³⁹Epistles, 1,2,56.
⁴⁰De octo vitiis, 406; Horace, Epistles, 1,1,33.
⁴¹De contemptu mundi, 2,873-930.
⁴²Horace, Odes, 3,16,42-44.
⁴³De contemptu mundi 2,349.
⁴⁴"Celum non animum mutans mare transsecat imum," De octo vitiis, 380. The quotation is from Horace: "Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt." (Epistles, 1,11,27.)
⁴⁵De octo vitiis, 383. "Non cantat lator coram latrone viator."
⁴⁶Juvenal, 10,19-22.
⁴⁷Matthew, 24,11. "Et multi pseudoprophetae surgent et seducent multos."
⁴⁸See above, p.176ff.
⁴⁹Vergil, Eclogues, 3,92-93.
⁵⁰Juvenal, 2,11-13.
⁵¹De contemptu mundi, 2,753.
⁵²See above, p.178.
⁵³Juvenal 2,38-40.
⁵⁴De contemptu mundi, 2,605-606.
⁵⁵Horace, Satires, 2,3,321.
⁶⁰De contemptu mundi, 2,799.
⁶¹Juvenal, 13,26-27.
⁶²De contemptu mundi, 1,899. See also De octo vitiis, 26, "mors ultima linea rerum."
⁶³Horace, Epistles, 1,16,79.
⁶⁴De contemptu mundi, 2,813.
⁶⁵Horace, Satires, 2,7,7.
⁶⁶Carmina de Trinitate, 496.
⁶⁷Horace, Ars poetica, 365.
⁶⁸De contemptu mundi, 2,513.
⁶⁹Juvenal, 6,641.
⁷⁰De castitate, 80; Horace, Epistles, 1,16,53.
⁷¹De contemptu mundi, 1,799-806.
⁷²Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3,422 (where it is applied to Narcissus) and 4,335 (where it is applied to Hermaphroditus).
⁷³Vergil, Aeneid, 8,660 (where it is applied to the Gauls attacking the Capitol).
⁷⁴Horace, Odes, 1,13,2-3 (where it is applied to Lydia).
⁷⁵De castitate, 258 and De octo vitiis, 166-167; Horace, Epistles, 1,2,55
⁷⁶De castitate, 510-511 (see also De octo vitiis, 258-259.); Horace, Epistles, 1,2,62-63. Bernard has adapted only to suit his metre. Horace has, "Ira furor brevis est: animum rege, qui nisi paret,/ imperat; hunc frenis, hunc tu compesce catena."
⁷⁷Horace, Epistles, 1,5,16-20.
⁷⁸De octo vitiis, 548-553.
⁷⁹Ovid, Ars amatoria, 1,239.
⁸⁰De octo vitiis, 625-626 and 934; Horace, Epistles, 1,2,69-70.
⁸¹Horace, Epistles, 1,2,3-4.
⁸²Cassian, Institutiones, 6-11 (PL 49,281-282.}
⁸³De castitate, 200-203.
⁸⁴De octo vitiis, 30.
⁸⁵Horace, Epodes, 16,66.
⁸⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,687.
⁸⁷Vergil, Aeneid, 2,85.
⁸⁸De octo vitiis, 173.
⁸⁹Vergil, Eclogues, 8,81.
⁹⁰3 Kings, 6,5-6.
⁹¹In libros Regum, 749-751.
⁹²Horace, Ars poetica, 151-152.
⁹³In libros Regum, 755-756; Juvenal, 8,140-141. "Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se/ crimen habet, quanto major, qui peccat, habetur."
⁹⁴In libros Regum, 971-974.
⁹⁵Horace, Satires, 2,7,83-88.
⁹⁶3 Kings 10,19.
⁹⁷De contemptu mundi, 3,81.
⁹⁸Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10,456.
⁹⁹De contemptu mundi, 3,716.
¹⁰⁰Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2,357.
¹⁰¹De contemptu mundi, 1,932; Juvenal, 1,95-96.
¹⁰²De contemptu mundi, 1,895.
¹⁰³Vergil, Aeneid, 2,557-558.
¹⁰⁴De contemptu mundi, 3,387.
¹⁰⁵Vergil, Aenid, 2,369.
¹⁰⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,207.
¹⁰⁷Vergil, Aeneid 1,292-293.
¹⁰⁸De contemptu mundi, 3,325; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1,468-471.
¹⁰⁹Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1,241; De octo vitiis, 817 and 1341. See also line 293.
¹¹⁰De castitate, 17-18. Ovid, Remedia amoris, 139 and 144.
¹¹¹De contemptu mundi, 2,496.
¹¹²Vergil, Aeneid, 2,758. "Ilicet ignis edax summa ad fastigia vento/ volvitur."
¹¹³De octo vitiis, 670.
¹¹⁴Ovid, Ex Ponto, 4,10,5.
¹¹⁵Carmina de Trinitate, 362.
¹¹⁶Vergil, Eclogues, 8,73-75.
¹¹⁷De contemptu mundi, 1,1011-1012.
¹¹⁸Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1,149-150.
¹¹⁹De octo vitiis, 896.
¹²⁰De octo vitiis, 1049-1050.
¹²¹De contemptu mundi, 3,57-60.
¹²²Juvenal, 6,15-17.
¹²³Juvenal, 6,19-20.
¹²⁴De octo vitiis, 1337-1339.
¹²⁵Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1,141-143.
¹²⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,947-948.
¹²⁷Juvenal, 1,87-88. See also Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1,318ff.
¹²⁸De octo vitiis, 899-902.
¹²⁹Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1,144-146.
¹³⁰De octo vitiis, 763.
⁵⁶De octo vitiis, 1298-1299. "Si nichil attuleris, Plato, Rome Brutus haberis./ Ibis, Omere, foras nisi Romam largus honoras." Katarina Halvarson notes "Brutus = brutus."
⁵⁷Ovid, Ars amatoria, 2,279-280.
⁵⁸De contemptu mundi, 2,555.
⁵⁹Juvenal, 6,53-54.
¹³¹Terence, Andria, 61.
¹³²De castitate, 478-479. Lucan, 2,381. Lucan is talking about Cato.
¹³³De octo vitiis, 148.
¹³⁴De octo vitiis, 1030.
¹³⁵Lucan, 7,568.
¹³⁶De castitate, 480-483.
¹³⁷Horace, Satires, 1,1,106-107. (Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,/ quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.) Epistles, 1,6,15-16. (Insani sapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui,/ ultra quam satis est virtutem si petat ipsam.) Bernard makes minimal change to meet metrical requirements. The mood changes may reflect Bernard's text, or his faulty memory.
¹³⁸De castitate, 490-491.
¹³⁹Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2,137.
¹⁴⁰Ovid, Ars amatoria, 2,63.
¹⁴¹De octo vitiis, 6-7.
¹⁴²Vergil, Eclogues, 2,17-18. De octo vitiis, 11 and 83
¹⁴³Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis, 21,1,1,2.
¹⁴⁴De octo vitiis, 17-20.
¹⁴⁵Horace, Odes, 2,10, 10-12.
¹⁴⁶Horace, Odes, 2,10,5-8.
¹⁴⁷De octo vitiis, 408-409.
¹⁴⁸Juvenal, 14, 138-140.
¹⁴⁹Juvenal, 14, 319-320.
¹⁵⁰Entheticus major and minor, Leyden, Brill, 1987. 3v. (Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 17), v.1, p.62-63
¹⁵¹See below, p.350 ff.
¹⁵²That is to say, all the works which are quite certainly his.
¹⁵³PL 218, 1275-1279. The entries in Migne's index suggest that Lucan, Persius and Terence were next in popularity.
¹⁵⁴Birger Munk Olsen, L'etude des auteurs classiques latins aux Xie et XIIe siecles, Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1982-1989, 4v. (Documents, Etudes et Repertoires).
¹⁵⁵Jan van Laarhoven, John of Salisbury's Entheticus major and minor, v.3, p.535-541.
¹⁵⁶Giraldi Cambrensis opera, edited by J.S. Brewer, volume 2, London, HMSO, 1861, (Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, Rolls series), p.342. See above, p.171.
¹⁵⁷Peter the Venerable, The letters of Peter the Venerable, edited with introduction and notes by Giles Constable, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1967, vol.1, p.53.
¹⁵⁸Bernard Jacqueline, "Repertoire des citations d'auteurs profanes dans les oeuvres de saint Bernard," in Commission d'Histoire de l'Ordre de Citeaux, Bernard de Clairvaux, Paris, Alsatia, 1952, p.549-554.
¹⁵⁹Jean Leclercq, , "Aspects litteraire de l'oeuvre de S. Bernard," in Recueil d'etudes sur saint Bernard et ses ecrits, 3, Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1969, p.14-104. See especially "Les auteurs profanes," p. 68-72.
¹⁶⁰ibid., p.69.
¹⁶¹ibid., p.69.
¹⁶²PL 182, 451. "Ego enim quaedam chimaera sum mei saeculi, nec clericum gero nec laicum."
¹⁶³Jean Leclercq, Recueil, p.69-70.
¹⁶⁴ibid., p.72 See also Jean Leclercq, "L'ecrivain," in Bernard de Clairvaux; histoire, mentalites, spiritulaite, Paris, Cerf, 1992 (Sources chretiennes 380) p.547- 548.
¹⁶⁵Brian Patrick McGuire, The difficult saint; Bernard of Clairvaux and his tradition, Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications, 1991, p.47-48.
¹⁶⁶Thomas Renna, "St Bernard and the pagan classics: an historical view," in The chimaera of his age: studies on Bernard of Clairvaux, edited by E. Rozanne Elder and John R. Sommerfeldt, Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications, 1980 (Cistercian Publications 63), p.122-131.
¹⁶⁷F.J.E. Raby says that "he ruled the fortunes of Christendom." (A history of Christian-Latin poetry from the beginnings to the close of the middle ages, 2nd edition, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953, p.327.)
¹⁶⁸Charles Homer Haskins, The renaissance of the twelfth century, New York, World Publishing, 1957 (first published Harvard University Press, 1927), p.257-258.
¹⁶⁹ibid., p.260.
¹⁷⁰See, for example, Irenee Vallery-Radot, "L'ecrivain, l'humaniste," in Commission d'Histoire de l'Ordre de Citeaux, Bernard de Clairvaux, Paris, Alsatia, 1953, p.447-485.
¹⁷¹Emero Stiegman, "Humanism in Bernard of Clairvaux: beyond literary culture," in, The chimaera of his age; studies on Bernard of Clairvaux, edited by E. Rozanne Elder and John R. Sommerfeldt, Kalamazoo, Cistercian Publications, 1980, p. 31.
¹⁷²Jean Leclercq, "The renewal of theology," in Renaissance and renewal in the twelfth century, edited by Robert L. Benson and Giles Constable, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1982, p.72.
¹⁷³ibid., p.85.
¹⁷⁴Irenee Vallery-Radot, "L'ecrivain," p.485.
¹⁷⁵A.J. Minnis, Medieval theory of authorship; scholastic literary attitudes in the later middle ages, 2nd ed., Aldershot, Wildwood House, 1988, p.25-26.
¹⁷⁶John of Salisbury, Entheticus major, 39-43. The translation is that of Jan van Laarhoven, p.106.
¹⁷⁷John of Salisbury, Metalogicon 3,4. "Preterea reverentia exhibenda est verbis auctorum, cum cultu et assiduitate utendi; tum quia quandam a magnis nominibus antiquitatis preferunt majestatem, tum quia dispendiosius ignorantur, cum ad urgendum aut resistendum potentissima sint."
¹⁷⁸ibid. "Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvehimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea." It seems preferable to read "ut possimus videre" as purposive, because that better expresses John's point that we deliberately make use of classical auctores. Compare, for example, Daniel D. McGarry's translation: "Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to [puny] dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature." (The Metalogicon of John of Salisbury; a twelfth-century defence of the verbal and logical arts of the Trivium, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1962, p.167.) The implication is that we just happen to be on the giants' shoulders, while John is concerned to stress that we ought to take pains to climb up there.
¹⁷⁹A. Clerval, Les ecoles de Chartres au moyen age (du Ve au XVIe siecle), Paris, 1895 (reprinted Minerva 1965), p.311.
¹⁸⁰Caesarius of Heisterbach, Caesarii Heisterbacensis monachi ordinis Cisterciensis Dialogus miraculorum, [edited by] Joseph Strange, vol 1., Cologne, Heberle, 1851 (reprinted Gregg, 1966), p.304.
¹⁸¹"mala civica," line 306. The reference may be to Lucan rather than to Caesar.
¹⁸²De contemptu mundi, 3,295-320.
¹⁸³Robert Bultot, "La doctrine du mepris du monde chez Bernard le Clusien," Moyen age 70(1964):203-204.
¹⁸⁴In Chartres Cathedral (which is in the same diocese as Nogent-le-Rotrou) there are stained glass windows depicting Saint Matthew seated on Isaiah's shoulders, Saint John on Ezekiels's, Saint Mark on Daniel's, and Saint Luke on Jeremiah's. There are similar depictions elsewhere. The pygmy is not necessarily inferior to the giant. (Robert K. Merton, On the shoulders of giants, p.183-192).
¹⁸⁵De contemptu mundi 1,587-592.
¹⁸⁶ibid., 643-646.
¹⁸⁷Not all versions of the myth put Elysium in the underworld. Homer, for example, puts it "at the world's end ... where no snow falls, no strong winds blow and there is never rain, but day after day the West Wind's tuneful breeze comes from Ocean ..." (Odyssey, 4,561-569). See also Hesiod, Works and days, 167- 173.
¹⁸⁸In libros Regum, 989; Horace, Odes 2,16,27.
¹⁸⁹In libros Regum, 697.
¹⁹⁰Horace, Epistles, 2,1,117. "Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim."
¹⁹¹Horace, Ars poetica, 293-294.
¹⁹²ibid, 388.
¹⁹³2 Timothy 3,7.
¹⁹⁴De contemptu mundi, Prologue.
¹⁹⁵Horace, Ars poetica 333-334. Horace has "Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae/ aut simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vitae." Bernard, with no constraints of metre or rhyme in his prose prologue, misquotes, "Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae/ aut utrumque, et honesta et idonea dicere vitae." He misses the point of the contrast between "jucunda" and "idonea." Since exactly the same misquotation occurs in the Carmina de Trinitate (297-298), it is possible that metrical considerations influenced Bernard in that poem and that he copied his misquotation into the De contemptu mundi. If that is the case, the Carmina de Trinitate may have been written before the De contemptu mundi.
¹⁹⁶De contemptu mundi, Prologus.
¹⁹⁷Carmina de Trinitate, 297-298.
¹⁹⁸Horace, Ars poetica, 343; Carmina de Trinitate, 300.
²⁰⁵1 John 2,18.
²⁰⁶De contemptu mundi, ed. Hoskier, p.xxxix. For the full text of the gloss, see above, p.91.
²⁰⁷Psalms 20, 10.
²⁰⁸Matthew 8,12. See also Matthew 22,13.
²⁰⁹ibid.
²¹⁰Job 24,19. "Let him pass from the snow waters to excessive heat: and his sin even to hell."
²¹¹De contemptu mundi, 1,549-576.
²¹²Psalms 103,12.
²¹³De Trinitate, 21-23.
²¹⁴De Trinitate, 550. "David," here, means the Psalms.
²¹⁵Hoskier, De contemptu mundi, p. ix.
²¹⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,250.
²¹⁷Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10,222ff. Lucan, Pharsalia, 9,716.
²¹⁸De contemptu mundi, 1,589; Vergil, Aeneid, 6, 303.
²¹⁹De contemptu mundi, 3,588.
²²⁰In libros Regum, 887.
²²¹De Trinitate, 336, 337, 339, 341.
²²²De Trinitate, 1014 and In libros Regum, 878.
²²³De contemptu mundi, 1,676; 2,625.
²²⁴De contemptu mundi, 1,812.
²²⁵De octo vitiis, 563.
²²⁶De contemptu mundi, 3,396; In libros Regum, 191.
²²⁷De contemptu mundi, 2,387.
²²⁸De contemptu mundi, 1,462
²²⁹De contemptu mundi, 2,238.
²³⁰De octo vitiis, 1015
²³¹De contemptu mundi, 2,713.
²³²In libros Regum, 847.
²³³De contemptu mundi, 2,424.
²³⁴In libros Regum, 158.
²³⁵In libros Regum, 886.
²³⁶De contemptu mundi, 3,73.
²³⁷De octo vitiis, 482, 589.
²³⁸In libros Regum, 848.
²³⁹De castitate, 521.
²⁴⁰De contemptu mundi, 3,82.
²⁴¹De contemptu mundi, 3,395.
²⁴²De octo vitiis, 135.
²⁴³De Trinitate, 55, 62 and elsewhere.
²⁴⁴De Trinitate, 250; In libros Regum, 23.
²⁴⁵In libros Regum, 996,1003.
²⁴⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,293.
²⁴⁷De contemptu mundi, 1,725.
²⁴⁸De castitate, 143.
²⁴⁹De Trinitate, 1199.
²⁵⁰PL 171,1426.
²⁵¹De contemptu mundi, 1,268; 1,761.
²⁵²De castitate, 366.
²⁵³The availability of translations and epitomes of Homer, for example, is indicated by Munk Olsen (L'etude des auteurs classique, v.1, p.413-420).
²⁵⁴De castitate, 148-152.
²⁵⁵Birger Munk Olsen, "L'humanisme de Jean de Salisbury; un ciceronien au 12e siecle," Entretiens sur la renaissance du 12e siecle, sous la direction de Maurice de Gandillac et Edouard Jeauneau, Paris, Mouton, 1968, p.53.
²⁵⁶See Chapter 6.
²⁵⁷John Edwin Sandys, A history of classical scholarship, vol.1, From the sixth century BC to the end of the middle ages, New York, Hafner, 1958, p.542.
²⁵⁸Walter Berschin, Greek letters and the Latin middle ages from Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa, Washington, Catholic University of America Press, 1988, p.239-240. See also Van Laarhoven, John of Salisbury's Entheticus major, v.1, p.16 and v.2, p.268, and Sandys, A history of classical scholarship, v.1, p.540;
²⁵⁹Sandys, loc. cit. See also Berschin, Greek letters, p.240-242 and 268.
²⁶⁰Hans Liebeschutz, Mediaeval humanism in the life and writings of John of Salisbury, London, Warburg institute, University of London, 1950, p.64.
²⁶¹John of Salisbury, Entheticus major, 727-862 and 937-1118.
²⁶²ibid., 851-852.
²⁶³ibid., 1215-1217.
²⁶⁴Munk Olsen, "L'humanisme de Jean de Salisbury," p.55.
²⁶⁵A.C. Dionisotti, "Walter of Chatillon and the Greeks," Latin poetry and the classical tradition; essays in medieval and Renaissance literature, edited by Peter Godman and Oswyn Murray, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990, p.89.
²⁶⁶Sandys, A history of classical scholarship, v.1, p.556.
²⁶⁷Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 9,1,3-4. Quoted in Bernice M. Kaczynski, Greek in the Carolingian age; the St. Gall manuscripts, Cambridge, Medieval Academy of America, 1988, p.2.
²⁶⁸PL 178,333.
²⁶⁹Peter offers no evidence, but Eusebius says that Papias says that presbyter John says, "Matthew compiled the Sayings in the Aramaic language, and everyone translated them as well as he could." (Eusebius, The history of the Church from Christ to Constantine, translated with an introduction by G.A. Williamson, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1965, p.152.)
²⁷⁰PL 178, 335-338.
²⁷¹Unless, of course, she was mischievously watching Peter make a fool of himself.
²⁷²"Claustrum sine armario quasi castrum sine armentario." PL 201,845.
²⁷³Leopold Victor Delisle, Le cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Imperiale, v.2, Paris, Imprimerie Imperiale, 1874 (reprinted Hildesheim, Olms, 1978), p.458-485
²⁷⁴PL 150, 769-782.
²⁷⁵ Berschin, Greek letters, p.207.
²⁷⁶Sandys, A history of classical scholarship, v.1., p.556,
²⁷⁷PL 196, 54.
²⁷⁸PL 203, 154.
²⁷⁹Charles Homer Haskins, "The Greek element in the renaissance of the twelfth century," American historical review 25(1920):611.
²⁸⁰N.G. Wilson, From Byzantium to Italy; Greek studies in the Italian Renaissance, London, Duckworth, 1992, p.1.
²⁸¹Sandys, A history of classical scholarship, vol.1, p.435.
²⁸²ibid., loc.cit.
²⁸³ibid., p.418-423.
²⁸⁴ibid., p.427-428.
²⁸⁵N.G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983, p.230.
²⁸⁶The invention of tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (Canto editions) 1992, p.7-8.
²⁸⁷It is interesting that Prys Morgan entitles his work about the invention of Welsh traditions The eighteenth century renaissance (Llandybie, Davies, 1981).
²⁸⁸De contemptu mundi, Prologus; Juvenal, 1,15-17.
²⁸⁹Janet Martin, "John of Salisbury as classical scholar," p.201.
²⁹⁰See below, p.362 ff.
²⁹¹De contemptu mundi, 3,631-651.
²⁹²Raby, Christian-Latin poetry, p.267-268. See also Waddell, More Latin lyrics, 262-263, and Kimon Giocarinis, "Bernard of Cluny and the antique," p.340.
²⁹³De contemptu mundi, 3,738.
²⁹⁴Vergil, Aeneid 1,264. "moresque viris et moenia ponet."
²⁹⁵Vergil, Aeneid, 1,293-294. "claudentur Belli portae; Furor impius intus/ saeva sedens ...."
²⁹⁶De contemptu mundi, 2,252. "furor impius, intus et extra."
²⁹⁷De contemptu mundi, 1,803-804.
²⁹⁸Vergil, Aeneid, 8,660.
²⁹⁹Horace, Odes 1,13,1-3. "Cum tu, Lydia, Telephi/ cervicem roseam, cerea Telephi/ laudas bracchia ..."