[769] Job xv. 35 (vg.); Ps. vii. 14 (vg.).

[770] Lev. xix. 16.

[771] Ps. ci. 5.

[772] Acts xiv. 12.

[773] Ps. lxxiv. 21.

[774] Luke xiv. 28.

[775] Viro, i.e. Malachy.

[776] Cp. John vi. 66.

[777] Quia non uis non uidebis.

[778] John viii. 21.

[779] Heb. iv. 12.

[780] 1 Kings xvii. 18.

[781] Perhaps because he imitated the customs of the Gauls.

[782] 1 Pet. iii. 9.

[783] Isa. liii. 7.

[784] Ps. xxxix. 1.

[785] Rom. xii. 19.

[786] 1 Sam. xvi. 14; xix. 9 (vg.).

[787] 2 Cor. xii. 7

[788] 1 Tim. i. 20.

[789] Susanna, 35.

[790] Ecclus. xxxi. 8 (vg.: with variant).

[791] Prov. i. 14.

[792] Ps. l. 12.

[793] Malachy disposed of the treasure according to his will. That fact, together with his relation to the brothers, revealed by the next few sentences, makes it exceedingly probable that he was still their abbot.

[794] Ps. lv. 23 (vg.).

[795] Bangor was apparently his headquarters.

[796] Heb. viii. 5.

[797] Jocelin, writing towards the end of the twelfth century, declares that St. Patrick founded a monastery at Saul (Vita S. Patricii, cap. 32). But, apparently, neither in the Annals nor in any other authority earlier than Jocelin, is mention made of a monastery there before St. Malachy's time. The text seems to imply that there were no monastic buildings on the site when he founded (or re-founded) it. Malachy placed in his new monastery a convent of regular canons of St. Augustine (A.U. 1170); but it never became an important establishment, though it was still in existence in the sixteenth century. See Reeves, pp. 40, 220 ff.

[798] This and the next story (Sec. 65) illustrate Malachy's power of reading the hearts of men.

[799] Luke xix. 1-4.

[800] Luke i. 17.

[801] 2 Cor. x. 18.

[802] See p. 4, n. 7.

[803] Suriensis monasterii. The monastery of Inislounaght, close to the River Suir, a mile or two to the west of Clonmel, co. Tipperary, is commonly known as De Surio. The present passage seems to show that it was founded before 1148. For information about it see an article by the late Dr. Bagwell, in J.R.S.A.I. xxxix. 267 f. and Janauschek, Orig. Cist. p. 131. This incident must have been considerably later than the foundation of Mellifont (see p. 75, n. 4). It may therefore be dated between 1143 and 1147.

[804] Rev. xix. 10.

[805] This word is constantly used in the plural of the Eucharist, each of the elements being regarded as a "sacrament."

[806] John i. 20.

[807] Gen. xxxix. 17.

[808] This story is suggested by the last because the incident occurred during the celebration of Mass.

[809] Evidently the cemetery in which, according to local tradition, St. Patrick was buried (see Sec. 19). It was probably the Ferta Martair, the site of St. Patrick's earlier settlement at Armagh (Reeves, Churches, p. 5; R.I.A. xviii. 660). It seems to be hinted that St. Malachy received a revelation of the position of his grave.

[810] Ps. lxxiv. 9.

[811] Secret of Mass for Kings, etc.

[812] A fresh classification of Malachy's miracles. For prophecy see Secs. 36, 48, 52, 57, 62, 64 f.

[813] Secs. 11, 63, 64, 65.

[814] Secs. 22 f., 48, 57, 60, 62.

[815] 1 Cor. xii. 9 (vg.).—Secs. 14, 15, 40, 45-47, 49-52, 60, 62.

[816] Secs. 26, 54, 57, 61.

[817] Sec. 53.

[818] Ps. cxix. 46.—Secs. 10, 40, 60.

[819] 1 Pet. v. 4.

[820] Rom. vi. 21, combined with Ps. cxvi. 15.



CHAPTER VIII

Departure from Ireland. Death and Burial at Clairvaux.

[Sidenote: 1148, May (?)]

67. (30). Being asked once, in what place, if a choice were given him, he would prefer to spend his last day—for on this subject the brothers used to ask one another what place each would select for himself—he hesitated, and made no reply. But when they insisted, he said, "If I take my departure hence[821] I shall do so nowhere more gladly than whence I may rise together with our Apostle"[822]—he referred to St. Patrick; "but if it behoves me to make a pilgrimage, and if God so permits, I have selected Clairvaux." When asked also about the time, [he named in reply] the festival of all the dead.[823] If it is regarded as a mere wish, it was fulfilled, if as a prophecy, not a jot passed from it.[824] As we have heard so have we seen[825] alike concerning place and day. Let us relate briefly in what order and by what occasion it came to pass. Malachy took it amiss that Ireland was still without a pall; for he was zealous for the sacraments, and would not that his nation should be wholly deprived of any one of them.[826] And remembering that it had been promised to him by Pope Innocent,[827] he was the more sad that while he was still alive it had not been sent for. And taking advantage of the fact that Pope Eugenius[828] held the chief rule and was reported to have gone at that time to France,[829] he rejoiced that he had found opportunity for claiming it. He took for granted that, the Pope being such a man as he was, and having been promoted from such a religious profession—and the more because he had been a special son of his own Clairvaux—he need not fear that he should have any difficulty with him. Therefore the bishops were summoned; a council assembled.[830] Matters which were of immediate importance at the time were discussed for three days, and on the fourth the scheme of obtaining the pall was broached. Assent was given, but on condition that it should be obtained by another. However, since the journey was a comparatively short one, and on that account the pilgrimage seemed more easy to be endured, none presumed to oppose his counsel and will. And when the council was dissolved Malachy started on his way.[831] Such brothers as had come together followed him to the shore; but not many, for he doubtless restrained them. One of them, Catholicus by name, with tearful voice and face, said to him, "Alas! you are going away; and in how great, almost daily, trouble you leave me you are not ignorant, and yet you do not, of your pity, give me help. If I deserve to suffer, what sin have the brothers committed that they are scarcely allowed to have any day or night free from the labour of caring for and guarding me?" By these words and tears of his son (for he wept) the father's heart was troubled,[832] and he embraced him with caresses, and making the sign of the cross on his breast said, "Be assured that you will have no such suffering till I return." Now he was an epileptic, and fell often; insomuch that at times he suffered not once but many times a day. He had been a victim to this horrible disease for six years; but at the word of Malachy he made a perfect recovery. From that hour he has suffered no such thing; no such thing, as we believe, will he suffer henceforth, for henceforth Malachy will not return.

68. When he was just about to embark there came unto him two of those who clave unto him[833] more closely, boldly desiring a certain thing of him. And he said to them, "What would ye?"[834] And they answered, "We will not say, except you promise that you will give it." He pledged himself. And they said, "We would have you certainly promise of your condescension, that you will return in good health to Ireland." All the others also insisted upon it. Then he deliberated for a while, repenting at first that he had bound himself, and not finding any way of escape. He was straitened on every side,[835] while no way of safety presented itself from both dangers—of forfeiting his wish and of breaking his promise. It seemed at length that he should rather choose that which influenced him more strongly at the moment, and leave the rest to higher guidance. He assented, sadly it is true; but he was more unwilling that they should be made sad; and pledging himself as they wished, he went on board the ship. And when they had completed nearly half the voyage suddenly a contrary wind drove the ship back and brought it to the land of Ireland again. Leaving the ship he passed the night in the port itself in one of his churches. And he joyfully gave thanks for the resourcefulness of the divine providence, by which it came about that he had now satisfied his promise. But in the morning, he went on board, and the same day, after a prosperous crossing, came into Scotland. On the third day[836] he reached a place which is called Viride Stagnum;[837] which he had caused to be prepared that he might found an abbey there. And leaving there some of his sons, our brothers, as a convent of monks and abbot[838] (for he had brought them with him for that purpose) he bade them farewell and set out.

69. And as he passed on, King David met him, by whom he was received with joy and was detained as his guest for some days.[839] And having done many things pleasing to God he resumed the journey that he had begun. And passing through Scotland, at the very border of England he went aside to the Church of Gisburn, where there dwell religious men leading a canonical life,[840] familiar to him of old for their religious conversation and honourable character. At that place a woman was brought to him, suffering from a disease horrible to see, which is commonly called cancer; and he healed her. For when water which he blessed was sprinkled on the sores she ceased to feel pain. On the next day scarcely a sore was to be seen.

Departing thence he came to the sea, but was refused passage. The reason, if I am not mistaken, was that some difference had arisen between the chief pontiff and the king of England: for the king suspected in that good man I know not what evil, if he should cross the sea;[841] for neither did he allow other bishops to cross.[842] That obstacle, though contrary to the will of Malachy, was not contrary to the object of his wish. He grieved that the attainment of his desire should be postponed, not knowing that by this it would be the rather fulfilled. For if he had immediately passed over the sea he would have been obliged to pass by Clairvaux in order to follow the chief Pontiff. For by that time he had left it and was at or near Rome.[843] But now through this delay it was brought about that he crossed later, and so, as was fitting, he came to the place of his most holy death, and at the hour of its approach.

[Sidenote: 1148, Oct. 13 or 14]

[Sidenote: 1148, Oct. 18]

70. (37). And he was received by us, though he came from the west, as the true day-spring[844] from on high visiting us.[845] O, how greatly did that radiant sun fill our Clairvaux with added glory! How pleasant was the festal day that dawned upon us at his coming! This was the day which the Lord had made, we rejoiced and were glad in it.[846] As for me, with what rapid and bounding step, though trembling and weak,[847] did I soon run to meet him! With what joy I kissed him! With what joyful arms I embraced[848] this grace sent to me from heaven! With what eager face and mind, my father, I brought thee into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that conceived me![849] What festive days I spent with thee then, though few! But how did he in his turn greet us? In truth our pilgrim showed himself cheerful and kindly to all, to all incredibly gracious. How good and how pleasant[850] a part he played among us as our guest, whom, forsooth, he had come from the uttermost parts of the earth to see, not that he should hear, but that he should show us, a Solomon! In fact we heard his wisdom,[851] we had his presence, and we have it still. Already four or five days of this our festival had passed, when lo, on the feast day of Blessed Luke the Evangelist,[852] when he had celebrated Mass in the convent[853] with that holy devotion of his, he was taken with a fever and lay down in his bed: and all of us were [sick] with him. The end of our mirth is sorrow,[854] but moderate sorrow, because for a time the fever seemed to be slight. You should see the brothers running about, eager to give, or to receive. To whom was it not sweet to see him? To whom was it not sweeter to minister to him? Both were pleasant and both salutary. It was an act of kindness to do him service, and it was repaid also to each one of them, by the gift of grace. All assisted, all were busied with much serving,[855] searching for medicines, applying poultices, urging him often to eat. But he said to them, "These things are without avail, yet for love of you I do whatever you bid me." For he knew that the time of his departure was at hand.[856]

71. And when the brothers who had come with him[857] urged him more boldly, saying that it behoved him not to despair of life, for that no signs of death appeared in him,[858] he said, "It behoves Malachy to leave the body this year."[859] And he added, "See, the day is drawing near which, as you very well know, I have always desired to be the day of my dissolution.[860] I know whom I have believed and am persuaded;[861] I shall not be disappointed of the rest of my desire,[862] since I already have part of it. He who by his mercy has led me to the place which I sought, will not deny me the time for which I wished no less. As regards this mean body, here is my rest;[863] as regards my soul, the Lord will provide, who saveth them that put their trust in Him.[864] And there is no small hope laid up for me at that day[865] in which so great benefits are bestowed by the living on the dead."[866] Not far away was that day when he spoke thus. Meanwhile he ordered that he should be anointed with the sacred oil. When the convent of brothers was going out that it might be done solemnly,[867] he would not permit them to come up to him; he went down to them. For he was lying in the balcony[868] of the upper house. He was anointed; and when he had received the viaticum, he commended himself to the prayers of the brothers, and the brothers to God,[869] and went back to bed. He went down from the high balcony[870] on his feet, and again, as if that were not enough, he went up on his feet; yet he said that death was at the doors.[871] Who should believe that this man was dying? Himself alone and God could know it. His face did not seem to have become pallid or wasted. His brow was not wrinkled, his eyes were not sunken, his nostrils were not thin, his lips were not contracted, his teeth were not brown, his neck was not gaunt and lean, his shoulders were not bowed, the flesh on the rest of his body had not failed. Such was the grace of his body, and such the glory of his countenance which was not to be done away,[872] even in death. As he appeared in life so was he also in death, more like to one alive.

72. (38). Hitherto our story has run a rapid course; but now it stays because Malachy has finished his course.[873] He is still, and with him we are still. Moreover, who would willingly hasten to [tell of] death? Especially thy death, holy father, who could describe it? Who would wish to hear the story? Yet we loved in life, in death we shall not be divided.[874] Brothers, let us not forsake in death him with whom we companied in life. From further Scotland[875] he ran hither to death; let us also go and die with him.[876] I must, I must tell that which of necessity I saw. The celebration, everywhere renowned, of All Saints[877] comes, and according to the ancient saying, Music in mourning is an unseasonable discourse.[878] We come, we sing, even against our will. We weep while we sing and we sing while we weep. Malachy, though he sings not, yet does not lament. For why should he lament, who is drawing near to joy? For us who remain,[879] mourning remains. Malachy alone keeps festival. For what he cannot do with his body he does with his mind, as it is written, The thought of man shall confess to thee, and the residue of thought shall keep the day of festival to thee.[880] When the instrument of the body fails him, and the organ of the mouth is silent, and the office of the voice ceases, it remains that with songs in his heart he keeps festival. Why should not the saint keep festival, who is being brought to the festival of the saints?[881] He presents to them what will soon be due to himself. Yet a little while[882] and he will be one of them.

73. Towards the dusk of night, when now somehow the celebration of the day had been finished by us, Malachy had drawn near, not to dusk but to dawn. Was it not dawn to him[883] for whom the night is far spent and the day is at hand?[884] So, the fever increasing, a burning sweat from within him began to break out over his whole body, that, as it were going through fire and through water, he might be brought into a wealthy place.[885] Now his life was despaired of, now each one condemned his own judgement, now none doubted that Malachy's word[886] was prevailing. We were called; we came. And lifting up his eyes on those who stood round him, he said, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you;[887] I give thanks to the divine compassion, I have not been disappointed of my desire."[888] Do you see the man free from care in death, and, not yet dead, already certain of life? No wonder. Seeing that the night was come to which he had looked forward, and that in it the day was dawning for him, so to speak triumphing over the night, he seemed to scoff at the darkness and as it were to cry, "I shall not say, surely the darkness shall cover me, because this night shall be light about me in my pleasure."[889] And tenderly consoling us he said, "Take care of me; if it be allowed me I shall not forget you. And it shall be allowed. I have believed in God,[890] and all things are possible to him that believeth.[891] I have loved God; I have loved you, and charity never faileth."[892] And looking up to heaven[893] he said, "O God, keep them in Thy name;[894] and not these only but all them also who through my word[895] and ministry have given themselves to thy service." Then, laying his hands on each one severally and blessing all,[896] he bade them go to rest, because his hour was not yet come.[897]

[Sidenote: 1148, November 2]

74. We went. We returned about midnight, for at that hour it was announced that the light shineth in darkness.[898] The house filled, the whole community was present, many abbots also who had assembled. With psalms and hymns and spiritual songs[899] we followed our friend as he returned to his own country.[900] In the fifty-fourth year of his age,[901] at the place and time which he had chosen beforehand and predicted, Malachy, the bishop and legate of the holy Apostolic See, taken up by the angels,[902] as it were from our hands, happily fell asleep in the Lord.[903] And indeed he slept. His placid face was the sign of a placid departure. And verily the eyes of all were fixed upon him;[904] but none could perceive when he departed. When dead he was thought to be alive, when alive, dead; so true was it that there was no difference which might distinguish death from life. The same vivacity of face, the same serenity, as commonly appears in one who sleeps. You might say that death robbed him of none of these things, but rather very greatly increased them. He was not changed; but he changed us all. In wondrous fashion the sorrow and groaning of all suddenly sank to rest, sadness was changed into joy,[905] singing banished lamentation.[906] He is borne forth, voices are borne to heaven, he is borne into the oratory on the shoulders of the abbots. Faith has conquered,[907] affection triumphs, things assume their normal course. All things are carried out in order, all proceed in the way of reason.

75. And in truth what reason is there to lament Malachy immoderately, as though his death was not precious,[908] as though it was not rather sleep than death, as though it was not the port of death and the portal of life?[909] Our friend Malachy sleepeth;[910] and I, must I mourn? such mourning is based on custom, not on reason. If the Lord hath given His beloved one sleep, and such sleep, in which there is an heritage of the Lord, even children, and the reward, the fruit of the womb,[911] which of these things seems to call for weeping? Must I weep for him who has escaped from weeping? He rejoices, he triumphs, he has been brought into the joy of his Lord,[912] and I, must I lament for him? I desire these things for myself, I do not grudge them to him. Meanwhile the obsequies are prepared, the sacrifice is offered for him,[913] all is performed according to custom with the greatest devotion. There stood some way off a boy whose arm hung by his side dead, rather burdensome to him than useful. When I discovered him I signed to him to come near, and taking his withered hand I laid it on the hand of the bishop, and it restored it to life. For in truth the grace of healings[914] lived in the dead; and his hand was to the dead hand what Elisha was to the dead man.[915] The boy had come from far[916] and the hand which he brought hanging down, he carried back whole to his own country. Now, all things having been duly accomplished in the very oratory of Saint Mary, Mother of God, in which he was well pleased,[917] Malachy is carried to his burial[918] in the eleven hundred and forty-eighth year from the Incarnation of the Lord, on the fourth of the Nones of November.[919] Thine, good Jesus, is the deposit which has been committed to us,[920] Thine is the treasure which is laid up with us.[921] We keep it[922] to be given back at the time when Thou shalt see fit to recall it; only that he may not go forth without his comrades, but that him whom we have had as our guest we may have also as our leader, when we shall reign with Thee, and with him also, for ever and ever.[923] Amen.

FOOTNOTES:

[821] I.e. "If I die in Ireland."

[822] In Armagh. See Secs. 19, 65.

[823] All Souls' Day, November 2.

[824] Matt. v. 18.

[825] Ps. xlviii. 8.

[826] Note that the pall is called a sacrament.

[827] See Sec. 38.

[828] Bernard Paganelli, a monk of Clairvaux, was sent to Rome by St. Bernard at the request of Innocent II. and was appointed abbot of the monastery of St. Anastasius. On the death of Lucius II. he was elected Pope, February 15, 1144, and assumed the title of Eugenius III. (H. K. Mann, Lives of the Popes, ix. 131 ff.)

[829] Eugenius left Viterbo at the beginning of 1147. He was at Lyons in March, and at Troyes on April 10 (Jaffe, p. 624 ff.; Mann, ix. 185).

[830] In accordance with the instructions of Innocent II. (Sec. 38): "A Synod was convened at Inis Patraic by Mael Maedoc, coarb of Patrick, at which were present fifteen bishops and two hundred priests, to establish rules and morals for all, both laity and clergy; and Mael Maedoc Ua Morgair, by the advice of the Synod, went a second time to Rome (sic) to confer with the comarb of Peter" (A.F.M. 1148). Inispatrick is a small island off Skerries, co. Dublin. For the date see R.A.I. xxxv. 249 f. In the same year Malachy had consecrated the monastery of Knock (A.F.M. See p. 67, n. 3).

[831] St. Bernard seems to have thought that St. Malachy set sail immediately after the Synod, and from a port not far from the place where it met. But this is impossible, for one day's sail brought him to Scotland (Sec. 68). He seems to have embarked at Bangor, which is about a hundred miles north of Inispatrick.

[832] Cp. Lam. ii. 11.

[833] Ruth i. 14.

[834] Matt. xx. 20, combined with Mark x. 35, 36.

[835] Susanna, 22.

[836] That is, the first day after his landing in Scotland.

[837] The Green Lake. It is now Soulseat, about eight miles from Cairngarroch. At this place Fergus, lord of Galloway (p. 76, n. 4), founded a famous monastery of Premonstratensian canons (Grub, Eccl. Hist. of Scotland, i. 269), which must not be confused with Malachy's more humble community.

[838] The abbot was Michael, who had belonged to the community at Bangor (Sec. 15). As this new community is called "a convent of monks" we may infer that it was of the Cistercian Order.

[839] Note the leisureliness of the journey in its earlier stages. Later on Malachy encountered difficulties, which no doubt involved further delay (Serm. i. Sec. 1).

[840] Gisburn is a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire on the river Ribble, not far from the border of Lancashire. It is clear that on this occasion Malachy followed the line of Watling Street, which ran through Ribchester, on the Ribble, about fourteen miles from Gisburn. His road probably passed within three miles of that place between Settle and Chetburn. He seems to have avoided entering England as long as possible—supposing no doubt, and with good reason, that he was safer in the dominions of David than in those of Stephen. For details of the journey see R.I.A. xxxv. 239 ff., 249. The monastery of Gisburn, of which the ruins remain to the south of the parish church, was founded for Augustinian canons, in 1129, by Robert de Brus (Dugdale, vi. 1, 265 ff.).

[841] Malachy was probably suspected (not without cause) of being an emissary of the supporters of the Empress Matilda. He had just spent some days with David I., and with him and his stepson Waltheof he was on terms of intimate friendship (Secs. 36, 40). King David invaded England in the following year.

[842] The reference is apparently to King Stephen's attempt to prevent Theobald of Canterbury and other bishops from attending the Council of Rheims in March 1148. But Malachy does not seem to have been summoned to the Council, and he did not reach the Channel till long after it was over (see next note).

[843] Eugenius left Clairvaux on April 27, and Lausanne on May 20 (Jaffe, p. 634). At this rate he might have been expected to reach Rome by the end of July. About that time, therefore, we may conjecture that Malachy was on the coast of Kent. Actually, the Pope was not near Rome till he reached Viterbo on November 30 (ibid. 636). St. Bernard, therefore, when he wrote this passage, was ignorant of his movements for a considerable time before Malachy's death.

[844] Oriens: literally, "east."

[845] Luke i. 78.

[846] Ps. cxviii. 24.

[847] St. Bernard's life-long and ever-increasing frailty is constantly alluded to by his biographers. It was largely due to his extreme austerity. In this incident we have an example of the way in which, on many occasions, the strength of his mind conquered the weakness of his body (V. P. v. 4).

[848] Gen. xxix. 13.

[849] Cant. iii. 4.

[850] Ps. cxxxiii. 1.

[851] Matt. xii. 42; Luke xi. 31.

[852] October 18. Malachy had therefore reached Clairvaux on October 13 or 14. In the interval he met St. Gilbert of Sempringham and presented him with a pastoral staff (Dugdale, vi. 2, p. xii.). In France Malachy travelled alone—having been parted from his companions in England—and probably on horseback (Sec. 36). He may, therefore, have left England about September 30, and traversed the 270 miles from Wissant to Clairvaux by October 14. He apparently intended to start for Rome on St. Luke's Day (Serm. i. Sec. 1).

[853] That is, in the presence of the community.

[854] Prov. xiv. 13 (inexact quotation).

[855] Luke x. 40.

[856] Cp. 2 Tim. iv. 6, in which the phraseology of the vg. differs entirely from that of the text.

[857] Not strictly accurate. Malachy reached Clairvaux before his companions. See p. 123, n. 3.

[858] The physicians said the same (Serm. i. Sec. 2).

[859] This saying is quoted in a slightly different form in Serm. i. Sec. 2.

[860] 2 Tim. iv. 6.

[861] 2 Tim. i. 12.

[862] Ps. lxxviii. 30 (vg.).

[863] Ps. cxxxii. 14 (inexact quotation).

[864] Ps. xvii. 7.

[865] 2 Tim. iv. 8.

[866] All Souls' Day.

[867] For the Cistercian method of administering unction see Usus antiquiores ordinis Cisterciensis, iii. 94 (P.L. clxvi. 1471).

[868] Solario.

[869] Cp. Letter iv. Sec. 2, where it is added that he commended the Irish brothers to the care of St. Bernard.

[870] Solio.

[871] Matt. xxiv. 33.

[872] 2 Cor. iii. 7.

[873] Tim. iv. 7.

[874] 2 Sam. i. 23 (inaccurate quotation).—Contrast St. Bernard's lament for his brother Gerard (Cant. xxvi. 4): "We loved in life, how have we been divided in death? Most bitter separation!"

[875] Ireland.

[876] John xi. 16.

[877] November 1. For the translation of relics which took place, apparently on that day, see Serm. i. Sec. 2.

[878] Ecclus. xxii. 6.

[879] 1 Thess. iv. 17.

[880] Ps. lxxvi. 10 (vg.).

[881] Sanctorum ... sollemnitatem. Not the Festival of All Saints, for that had already come, but, as the next sentence shows, the festival assembly of the saints in heaven. Compare Ps. lxxiv. 4, where congregations represents solemnitatis in the Vulgate.

[882] John xiv. 19, etc.

[883] Cp. Cant. xxvi. 11, "For thee, brother, even at midnight the day dawned."

[884] Rom. xiii. 12.

[885] Ps. lxvi. 12.

[886] See Sec. 71.

[887] Luke xxii. 51.—This saying is quoted in Serm. i. Sec. 5.

[888] Ps. lxxviii. 30 (vg.).

[889] Ps. cxxxix. 11 (vg.).—Cp. Cant. xxvi. 11: "Already for thee, my brother, even at midnight the day was dawning, and the night was shining as the day; straightway that night was light about thee in thy pleasure. I was summoned to that miracle, to see a man exulting in death and mocking death."

[890] John xiv. 1.

[891] Mark ix. 23.

[892] 1 Cor. xiii. 8.

[893] Mark vii. 34.

[894] John xvii. 11.

[895] John xvii. 20.

[896] Cp. Praef. 2.

[897] John vii. 30.

[898] John i. 5.

[899] Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.

[900] The meaning of the phrase is explained in De Cons. v. 2: "This will be a returning to our own country, when we leave the country of our bodies and reach the realm of spirits—I mean our God, the Mighty Spirit, the great abiding place of the spirits of the blest" (Lewis's translation, slightly altered). Cp. Serm. ii., Sec. 6.

[901] A.F.M. say, "after the fifty-fourth year of his age." St. Bernard appears to be right. For Malachy was made bishop of Connor when he was just entering his thirtieth year (Sec. 16), i.e. about his twenty-ninth birthday. A.F.M. give the date as 1124. But if he was over fifty-four on November 2, 1148 (Sec. 75), his twenty-ninth birthday would have been before November 1123. If he was under fifty-four on that day it may have been in 1124.

[902] Luke xvi. 22.

[903] Acts vii. 60 (vg.).

[904] Luke iv. 20.

[905] Esth. xiii. 17 (vg.); xvi. 21 (vg.); cp. John xvi. 20, etc.

[906] Cp. Amos viii. 10.

[907] 1 John v. 5.

[908] Ps. cxvi. 15.

[909] Cp. Serm. ii. Sec. 8.

[910] John xi. 11.

[911] Ps. cxxvii. 2, 3 (vg.).

[912] Matt. xxv. 21, 23.

[913] St. Bernard himself celebrated Mass, and by divine inspiration, "when the sacrifice was finished, changed the order of the prayer and introduced the collect for the commemoration of saints who were bishops instead of that which was used for the commendation of the dead," anticipating, as we may suppose, Malachy's canonization. He then devoutly kissed his feet (V.P. iv. 21).

[914] 1 Cor. xii. 9 (vg.).

[915] 2 Kings xiii. 21.

[916] Mark viii. 3.

[917] Matt. iii. 17.

[918] Malachy was buried on the north side of the Oratory, vested in St. Bernard's habit. Five years later St. Bernard was buried before the Altar of Saint Mary, clad in the habit in which Malachy died, and which he had worn ever since his death when he celebrated Mass (V.P. v. 15, 23, 24). For further particulars of St. Malachy's burial and the disposal of his relics see R.Q.H. lii. 43 f.

[919] November 2. From this statement (see p. 128, n. 1) we may infer that Malachy was born in 1095, before November.

[920] 2 Tim. i. 12.

[921] The biographers of St. Bernard give no detailed account of any of Malachy's visits to Clairvaux. But one of them—Geoffrey, St. Bernard's secretary—wrote a prayer for the Bright Valley, in which he placed Malachy on a par with the great Cistercian, thereby revealing to us the extraordinary impression which he made on the community (V.P. v. 25). I owe the following translation of it to a friend: "Grant, O Lord, thy never-failing bounty to the spiritual harvest of the Valley, which thou didst deem worthy to illumine with two stars of such surpassing brightness, so making it brighter in very truth even than in name. Do thou guard the house wherein this twofold treasure is laid up and guarded for thee. Be it also unto us according to thy word, that as thy treasure is there so may thy heart be also; there too thy grace and mercy: and may the favour of thy compassion for ever rest on all who are gathered together in the self-same place in thy Name, which is above every name, even as thou art over all, God blessed for ever.—Amen."

[922] 2 Tim. i. 12.

[923] Rev. xxii. 5.



LETTERS OF ST. BERNARD

I

To Malachy. 1141.[924]

(Epistle 341.)

To the venerable lord and most blessed father, Malachy, by the grace of God archbishop of the Irish, legate of the Apostolic See, Brother Bernard called to be abbot of Clairvaux, [desiring] to find grace with the Lord.

1. Amid the manifold anxieties and cares of my heart,[925] by the multitude of which my soul is sore vexed,[926] the brothers coming from a far country[927] that they may serve the Lord,[928] thy letter, and thy staff, they comfort me:[929] the letter, as a proof of good will; the staff, to support my weak body; the brothers, because they serve the Lord in a humble spirit.[930] We have received them all, we are pleased with all, all alike work together for good.[931] But as to the wish that you have expressed that two of the brothers[932] should be sent to look out a place for you beforehand, having taken counsel with the brothers, we have not thought it meet that they should be separated one from another[933] until Christ be more fully formed in them,[934] until they are wholly instructed in the battles of the Lord.[935] When therefore they have been taught in the school of the Holy Spirit, when they have been endued with power from on high,[936] then at length the sons shall return to their father that they may sing the Lord's song, not now in a strange land,[937] but in their own.

2. But do you yourselves in the mean time, according to the wisdom given you[938] by the Lord, look out beforehand and prepare beforehand a place for them,[939] like the places which you have seen here, apart from the commotions of the world. For the time is at hand[940] when, by the operation of the grace of God, we shall bring forth for you new men out of the old.[941] Blessed be the Name of the Lord for ever,[942] of whose only gift it cometh that[943] I have sons in common with you, whom your preaching planted and our exhortation watered, but God gave the increase.[944] We beseech your holiness to preach the word of the Lord[945] so that you may give knowledge of salvation unto His people.[946] For a double necessity is laid upon you,[947] both from your office as legate and your duty as bishop. Finally, since in many things we offend all,[948] and, being often thrown among the men of this age, we are much besmirched with the dust of the world, I commend myself to your prayers and to those of your companions, that in His fountain of mercy Jesus Christ, himself the fountain of pity, may deign to wash and cleanse us, who said to Peter, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me.[949] And, indeed, I not only earnestly entreat this of you, but also require it as in some sense the payment of a debt, since I cry to the Lord for you, if the prayer of a sinner can do anything. Farewell in the Lord.

II

To Malachy. 1141 or 1142.[950]

(Epistle 356.)

To Malachy, by the grace of God bishop, legate of the Apostolic See, Brother Bernard, called to be abbot of Clairvaux, if the prayer of a sinner can do anything, and if the devotion of a poor man is of any advantage.

We have done what your holiness commanded, not perhaps as it was worthy to be done, yet as well as was possible considering the time in which we live. So great evil everywhere struts about among us that it was scarcely possible to do the little that has been done. We have sent only a few grains of seed,[951] as you see, to sow at least a small part of that field into which the true Isaac once went out to meditate, when Rebekah was first brought to him by Abraham's servant, to be happily joined to him in everlasting marriage.[952] And the seed is not to be despised concerning which we find that word fulfilled at this time in your regions,[953] Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.[954] I, therefore, have sown, do you water, and God shall give the increase.[955] All the saints who are with you we salute through you, humbly commending ourselves to their holy prayers and yours. Farewell.

III

To Malachy. 1143 or 1144.[956]

(Epistle 357.)

To our most loving father and most revered lord, Malachy, by the grace of God bishop, legate of the Holy and Apostolic See, the servant of his holiness, Brother Bernard, called to be abbot of Clairvaux, health and our prayers, of whatever value they may be.

1. How sweet are thy words unto my taste,[957] my lord and father. How pleasant is the remembrance of thy holiness.[958] If there is any love, any devotedness, any good will in us, without doubt the charity of your belovedness claims it all as its due. There is no need for a multitude of words where affection blossoms abundantly. For I am confident that the Spirit which you have from God[959] bears witness with your spirit that[960] what we are,[961] however small it be, is yours.[962] You also, most loving and most longed-for father, deliver not to forgetfulness the soul of the poor man, which cleaves to thee with the bonds of charity, and forget not the soul of thy poor man for ever.[963] For neither, as it were anew, do we commend ourselves unto you[964] when now for a long time we glory in the Lord[965] that our littleness has been worthy to find grace in the sight of your holiness;[966] but we pray that our affection, no longer new, may advance with new accessions day by day. We commend to you our sons, yea also yours, and the more earnestly because they are so far removed from us. You know that, after God, all our trust was in you, in sending them, because it seemed to us wrong not to fulfil the prayers of your holiness. See, as becomes you, that with your whole heart of love you embrace them and cherish them. In no wise for any cause let your earnest care for them grow cold, nor let that perish which thy right hand hath planted.[967]

2. We have now indeed learned both from your letter and from the report of our brothers[968] that the house is making good progress, [and] is being enriched both in temporal and spiritual possessions.[969] Wherefore we rejoice greatly with you and give thanks with our whole heart to God and to your fatherly care. And because there is still need of great watchfulness, because the place is new, and the land unaccustomed to the monastic life, yea, without any experience of it, we beseech you in the Lord,[970] that you slack not your hand,[971] but perfectly accomplish that which you have well begun. Concerning our brothers who have returned from that place,[972] it had pleased us well if they had remained. But perhaps the brothers[973] of your country, whose characters are less disciplined and who have lent a less ready ear to advice in those observances, which were new to them, have been in some measure the reason for their return.

3. We have sent back to you Christian, our very dear son, and yours. We have instructed him more fully, as far as we could, in the things which belong to the [Cistercian] Order, and henceforth, as we hope, he will be more careful concerning its obligations.[974] Do not be surprised that we have not sent any other brothers with him; for we did not find competent brothers who were ready to assent to our wishes, and it was not our plan to compel the unwilling. Our much-loved brother, Robert,[975] assented on this occasion also to our prayers, as an obedient son.[976] It will be your part to assist him that your house may now be set forward, both in buildings and in other necessaries. This also we suggest to your fatherhood, that you persuade religious men and those who, you hope, will be useful to the monastery, to come into their Order, for this will be of the greatest advantage to the house, and to you they will pay the greater heed. May your holiness have good health, being always mindful of us in Christ.

IV

To the Brothers in Ireland. November 1148.[977]

(Epistle 374.)

To the religious brothers who are in Ireland, and especially to those communities which Malachy the bishop, of blessed memory, founded, Brother Bernard, called to be abbot of Clairvaux, [wishing them] the consolation of the Comforter.[978]

1. If here we had a continuing city we should rightly mourn with most abundant tears that we had lost such a fellow-citizen. But if we rather seek one to come,[979] as befits us, it is nevertheless no small cause of grief that we are bereaved of a guide so indispensable. We ought, however, to regulate passion with knowledge and to mitigate grief with the confidence of hope.[980] Nor does it become any one to wonder if love compels groaning, if desolation draws forth tears: yet we must set a limit to these things, nay in no small measure be consoled while we gaze not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.[981] First, indeed, we ought to rejoice with the holy soul, lest he accuse us of want of charity, saying also himself what the Lord said to the apostles, "If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I go unto the Father."[982] The spirit of our father has gone before us to the Father of spirits,[983] and we are convicted, not only as wanting in charity, but even as guilty of ingratitude for all the benefits which came to us through him, if we do not rejoice with him who has departed from labour to rest, from danger to safety, from the world unto the Father.[984] Therefore, if it is an act of filial piety to weep for Malachy who is dead, yet more is it an act of piety to rejoice with Malachy who is alive. Is he not alive? Assuredly he is, and in bliss. In the eyes of the foolish he seemed to have died; but he is in peace.[985]

2. Hence even the thought of our own advantage provides us with another motive for great joy and gladness, because so powerful a patron, so faithful an advocate has gone before us to the heavenly court.[986] For his most fervent charity cannot forget his sons, and his approved holiness must secure favour with God.[987] For who would dare to suppose that this holy Malachy can now be less profitable [than before] or less loving to his own? Assuredly, if he was loved aforetime, now he receives from God surer proofs of His love, and having loved his own, he loved them unto the end.[988] Far be it from us, holy soul, to esteem thy prayer now less effectual, for now thou canst make supplication with more vigour in the presence of the Majesty[989] and thou no longer walkest in faith, but reignest in the sight of Him.[990] Far be it from us to count that laborious charity of thine as diminished, not to say made void, now that thou prostratest thyself at the very fountain of eternal charity, quaffing full draughts of that for the very drops of which thou didst thirst before. Charity, strong as death,[991] yea even stronger than death itself, could not yield to death. For even at the moment of his departure he was not unmindful of you, with exceptional affection commending you to God, and with his accustomed meekness and lowliness[992] praying our insignificance also that we should not forget you for ever.[993] Wherefore also we thought good to write to you that you may know that we are ready to bestow upon you all consolation with entire devotion, whether in spiritual things, if in them our insignificance can ever do anything by the merits of this our blessed father, or in temporal, if ever perchance opportunity should be given us.

3. And now also, dearly beloved, we are filled with heartfelt pity for this grievous bereavement of the Irish Church.[994] And we unite ourselves the more with you in suffering because we know that by this very thing we have become the more your debtors. For the Lord did great things for us[995] when He deigned to honour this place of ours by making it the scene of his blessed death, and to enrich it with the most costly treasure of his body.[996] But do not take it ill that he is buried among us; for God so ordered, according to the multitude of His mercies,[997] that you should possess him in life, and that it might be allowed to us to possess him, if only in death. And to us, indeed, in common with you, he was, and still is, father. For even in his death this testament was confirmed to us.[998] Wherefore as, for the sake of so great a father, we embrace you all as our true brothers, with the unstinted yearning of charity, so also concerning yourselves, spiritual kinship persuades us that you are like-minded.

4. But we exhort you, brothers, that you be always careful to walk in the steps of this our blessed father,[999] by so much the more zealously as by daily proofs his holy conversation[1000] was more certainly known to you. For in this you shall prove yourselves to be his true sons, if you manfully maintain the father's ordinances, and if, as you have seen in him, and heard from him how you ought to walk, you so walk that you may abound more and more:[1001] for the glory of a father is the wisdom of his sons.[1002] For even for us the example of so great perfection in our midst has begun in no slight degree both to expel our sloth and impel us to reverence. And would that he may in such wise draw us after him that he may draw us to the goal, running more eagerly and more quickly in the fragrance which his virtues have left so fresh behind them.[1003] May Christ guard all of you while you pray for us.[1004]

FOOTNOTES:

[924] When this letter was written certain brothers, sent by Malachy after his return from Rome (October 1140), had arrived at Clairvaux, and had spent some time there (see notes 5, 7); and the brothers left there on his return journey had had a considerable amount of instruction (n. 7). The date is therefore not earlier than 1141. But it is evidently earlier than that of Letter ii.

[925] Cp. Hor., Sat. i. 2. 110.

[926] Ps. vi. 3.

[927] Josh. ix. 6.

[928] These were some of the brothers sent from Ireland (Life, Sec. 39).

[929] Ps. xxiii. 4.

[930] Song of Three Children, 16.—They had evidently been a good while under St. Bernard's eye.

[931] Rom. viii. 28.

[932] No doubt the four brothers who had been left at Clairvaux (Life, Sec. 39).

[933] Matt. xxv. 32.

[934] Gal. iv. 19.

[935] 1 Sam. xxv. 28.

[936] Luke xxiv. 49.

[937] Ps. cxxxvii. 4.

[938] 2 Pet. iii. 15.

[939] John xiv. 2.

[940] Rev. i. 3; xxii. 10.

[941] Cp. Rom. vi. 6; Eph. ii. 15; iv. 22, 24.

[942] Dan. ii. 20, etc.

[943] Coll. for 13th Sunday after Pentecost.

[944] 1 Cor. iii. 6.

[945] Acts xv. 36.

[946] Luke i. 77.

[947] 1 Cor. ix. 16.

[948] Jas. iii. 2.

[949] John xiii. 8 (inexact quotation).

[950] Mellifont was probably founded immediately after the brothers mentioned in the letter reached Ireland. The date is therefore in or before 1142. They would hardly have been sent till news had reached St. Bernard that the site had been chosen (Lett. i, Sec. 2). Cp. p. 75, n. 4.

[951] The brothers sent from Clairvaux "sufficient in number for an abbey" (Life, Sec. 39).

[952] Gen. xxiv. 63 ff.—Cp. De Cons. ii. 13, where the same passage of Genesis is referred to. It is there (Sec. 12) explained that the field is the world, which has been placed in charge of the Pope.

[953] Printed text patribus. I read partibus.

[954] Rom. ix. 29 (inexact quotation).

[955] 1 Cor. iii. 6.

[956] Mellifont had been founded a good while before the letter was written. Christian had returned to Clairvaux; and now after further instruction he was sent back, apparently as the bearer of the letter. The house had made good progress, but the buildings were still far from complete (Secs. 2, 3).

[957] Ps. cxix. 103.

[958] Ps. xxx. 4.

[959] 1 Cor. ii. 12.

[960] Rom. viii. 16.

[961] 1 Cor xv. 10.

[962] 1 Cor. iii. 22.

[963] Ps. lxxiv. 19 (vg.); Jer. xx. 13.

[964] 2 Cor. v. 12.

[965] 2 Cor. x. 17; 1 Cor. i. 31.

[966] 1 Sam. i. 18, etc.

[967] Ps. lxxx. 15.

[968] Apparently the returned brothers mentioned below.

[969] Cp. the passage quoted p. 170.

[970] 1 Thess. iv. 1.

[971] Josh. x. 6.

[972] The monks of Clairvaux seem to have been reluctant to undertake work elsewhere, when St. Bernard desired them to do so (V.P. vii. 52 f.); and we have one instance of an abbot of a daughter house—Humbert of Igny—who resigned his office and returned to Clairvaux against St. Bernard's will (Ep. 141).

[973] Printed text, fratrum. Read fratres.

[974] Evidently Christian did not prove a satisfactory abbot. This may in part account for the return of the monks who went with him to Ireland.

[975] Of this Robert, apparently the architect of Mellifont, we know nothing; for suggestions that he should be identified with one or other of the monks of Clairvaux who bore the same name are mere guesses.

[976] 1 Pet. i. 14 (vg., inexact quotation).

[977] Clearly this letter must have been penned a few days after Malachy's death.

[978] Acts ix. 31, combined with John xiv. 26, etc.

[979] Heb. xiii. 14.

[980] Cp. Heb. iii. 6.

[981] 2 Cor. iv. 18.

[982] John xiv. 28.

[983] Heb. xii. 9.

[984] John xiii. 1.—Cp. Serm. i. Sec. 4 f., "It is the end of labours ... and the entrance to perfect safety. Let us rejoice therefore ... with our father"; Sec. 8, "Threefold is the rejoicing of the man, since he is delivered from all sin and from labour and from danger"; and words ascribed to St. Bernard in V.P. vii. 49, "Believe, my son, for now thou art about to pass from death to life, from temporal labour to eternal rest."

[985] Communio for All Saints' Day (from Wisd. iii. 2, 3).—For the last four sentences of the section cp. Serm. i. Sec. 5, where an identical passage immediately follows the first parallel quoted in n. 3.

[986] Serm. i. Sec. 1 (end) is somewhat similar in expression, and Sec. 8 (end) in thought. There is a closer, but not very striking, parallel in Serm. ii. Sec. 5 (end).

[987] Luke ii. 52.

[988] John xiii. 1 (inexact quotation).

[989] Heb. i. 3.

[990] 2 Cor. v. 7 (inexact quotation).

[991] Cant. viii. 6.

[992] Cp. Eph. iv. 2.

[993] Ps. lxxiv, 19.

[994] Cp. Serm. i. Sec. 3 (beginning).

[995] Ps. cxxvi. 3.

[996] Cp. Serm. i. Sec. 2, "Therefore we render thanks," etc.

[997] Ps. cvi. 45.

[998] Heb. ix. 17 (vg., inexact quotation).

[999] Rom. iv. 12.

[1000] 2 Pet. iii. 11.

[1001] 1 Thess. iv. 1 (vg.).

[1002] Cp. Prov. x. 1.

[1003] Cant. i. 3, 4.—Cp. Serm. i. Sec. 8 (end).

[1004] Col. iv. 3.



SERMONS OF ST. BERNARD ON THE PASSING OF MALACHY

Sermon I

(November 2, 1148.)[1005]

1. A certain abundant blessing, dearly beloved, has been sent by the counsel of heaven to you this day; and if it were not faithfully divided, you would suffer loss, and I, to whom of a surety this office seems to have been committed, would incur danger. I fear therefore your loss, I fear my own damnation,[1006] if perchance it be said, The young children ask bread, and no man offereth it unto them.[1007] For I know how necessary for you is the consolation which comes from heaven, since it is certain that you have manfully renounced carnal delights and worldly pleasures. None can reasonably doubt that it was by the good gift of heaven, and determined by divine purpose,[1008] that Bishop Malachy should fall asleep among you to-day, and among you have his place of burial, as he desired. For if not even a leaf of a tree falls to the ground without the will of God,[1009] who is so dull as not to see plainly in the coming of this blessed man, and his passing, a truly great purpose of the divine compassion?[1010] From the uttermost parts of the earth he came[1011] to leave his earth here. He was hastening, it is true, on another errand; but we know that by reason of his special love for us he desired that most of all.[1012] He suffered many hindrances in the journey itself, and he was refused permission to cross the sea till the time of his consummation was drawing near,[1013] and the goal which could not be passed. And when, with many labours, he came to us we received him as an angel of God[1014] out of reverence for his holiness; but he, out of his very deeply rooted meekness and lowliness,[1015] far beyond our merits, received us with devoted love. Then he spent a few days with us in his usual health: for he was waiting for his companions, who had been scattered in England, when the baseless distrust of the king was hindering the man of God. And when they had all assembled to him, he was preparing to set out to the Roman Court, on his way to which he had come hither;[1016] when suddenly he was overtaken by sickness, and he immediately perceived that he was being summoned rather to the heavenly palace, God having provided some better thing for us, lest going out from us he should be made perfect elsewhere.[1017]

2. There appeared to the physicians no sign in him, I say not of death, but even of serious illness; but he, gladdened in spirit, said that in every way it was befitting that this year Malachy should depart from this life.[1018] We laboured to prevent it, both by earnest prayers to God, and by whatever other means we could; but his merits prevailed, that his heart's desire should be given him and that the request of his lips should not be withholden.[1019] For so all things happened to him in accordance with his wishes; that by the inspiration of the divine goodness he had chosen this place above all others, and that he had long desired that he should have as the day of his burial this day on which the general memory of all the faithful is celebrated.[1020] Moreover, these joys of ours were worthily increased by the circumstance that we had selected that same day, by God's will, for bringing hither from the former cemetery for their second burial the bones of our brothers.[1021] And when we were bringing them, and singing psalms in the accustomed manner, the same holy man said that he was very greatly delighted with that chanting. And not long after, he himself also followed, having sunk into a most sweet and blessed sleep. Therefore we render thanks to God for all the things that He has disposed, because He willed to honour us, unworthy as we are, by his blessed death among us, to enrich His poor with the most costly treasure of his body, and to strengthen us, who are weak, by so great a pillar[1022] of His church. For one or other of two signs proves that it was wrought for us for good,[1023] either that this place is pleasing to God, or that it is His will to make it pleasing to Him, since He led to it from the uttermost parts of the earth[1024] so holy a man to die and to be buried there.

3. But our very love for this blessed father compels us to sorrow with that people from our heart, and to shudder exceedingly at the cruelty of him, even Death, who has not spared to inflict this terrible wound on the Church, now so much to be pitied. Terrible and unpitying surely is death, which has punished so great a multitude of men by smiting one; blind and without foresight, which has tied the tongue of Malachy, arrested his steps, relaxed his hands, closed his eyes. Those devout eyes, I say, which were wont to restore divine grace to sinners, by most tender tears; those most holy hands, which had always loved to be occupied in laborious and humble deeds, which so often offered for sinners the saving sacrifice[1025] of the Lord's body, and were lifted up to heaven in prayer without wrath and doubting,[1026] which are known to have bestowed many benefits on the sick and to have been resplendent with manifold signs; those beautiful steps also of him that preached the Gospel of peace and brought glad tidings of good things; those feet,[1027] which were so often wearied with eagerness to show pity; those footprints which were always worthy to merit devout kisses;[1028] finally, those holy lips of the priest, which kept knowledge,[1029] the mouth of the righteous, which spoke wisdom, and his tongue which, talking of judgement,[1030] yea and of mercy,[1031] was wont to heal so great wounds of souls. And it is no wonder, brothers, that death is iniquitous, since iniquity brought it forth,[1032] that it is heedless, since it is known to have been born of seduction.[1033] It is nothing wonderful, I say, if it strikes without distinction, since it came from the transgression;[1034] if it is cruel and mad, since it was produced by the subtlety of the old serpent[1035] and the folly of the woman. But why do we charge against it that it dared to assail Malachy, a faithful member, it is true, of Christ,[1036] when it also rushed madly upon the very head of[1037] Malachy and of all the elect as well? It rushed, assuredly, upon One whom it could not hurt; but it did not rush away unhurt. Death hurled itself against life, and life shut up death within itself, and death was swallowed up of life.[1038] Gulping down the hook to its hurt, it began to be held by Him whom it seemed to have held.[1039]

4. But perhaps some one may say, How does it appear that death has been overcome by the Head, if it still rages with so great liberty against the members? If death is dead, how did it kill Malachy? If it is conquered how has it still power over all, and there is no man that liveth and shall not see death?[1040] Death is clearly conquered—the work of the devil[1041] and the penalty of sin: sin is conquered, the cause of death; and the wicked one himself is conquered,[1042] the author both of sin and death. And not only are these things conquered, they are, moreover, already judged and condemned. The sentence is determined, but not yet published. In fact, the fire is prepared for the devil,[1043] though he is not yet cast into the fire, though still for a short time[1044] he is allowed to work wickedness. He is become, as it were, the hammer of the Heavenly Workman, the hammer of the whole earth.[1045] He crushes the elect for their profit,[1046] he crushes to powder the reprobate for their damnation. As is the master of the house, so are they of his household,[1047] that is, sin and death. For sin, though it is not to be doubted that it was nailed with Christ to His cross,[1048] was yet allowed still for a time, not indeed to reign,[1049] but to dwell even in the Apostle himself while he lived. I lie if he does not himself say, It is no more I that do it, but sin dwelleth in me.[1050] So also death itself is by no means, indeed, yet compelled not to be present, but it is compelled not to be present to men's hurt. But there will come a time when it is said, O death, where is thy victory?[1051] For death also is the last enemy that shall be destroyed.[1052] But now, since He rules who has the power of life and death[1053] and confines the very sea within the fixed limits of its shores, death itself to the beloved of the Lord is a sleep of refreshment. The prophet bears witness who says, When he giveth his beloved sleep, behold the heritage of the Lord.[1054] The death of the wicked is indeed most evil,[1055] since their birth is evil and their life more evil; but precious is the death of the saints.[1056] Precious clearly, for it is the end of labours, the consummation of victory, the gate of life, and the entrance to perfect safety.

5. Let us rejoice therefore, brothers, let us rejoice as is meet, with our father, for if it is an act of filial piety to mourn for Malachy who is dead, yet more is it an act of piety to rejoice with Malachy who is alive. Is he not alive? He is, and in bliss. Certainly, in the eyes of the foolish he seemed to have died; but he is in peace.[1057] In fine, now a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God,[1058] he at once sings and gives thanks, saying, We went through fire and water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.[1059] He went, clearly, in manly fashion, and he went through[1060] happily. The true Hebrew celebrated the Passover in spirit, and as he went, he said to us, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you."[1061] He went through fire and water,[1062] whom neither experiences of sadness could crush, nor pleasures hold back. For there is below us a place which fire wholly claims as its own, so that the wretched Dives could not have there even the least drop of water from the finger of Lazarus.[1063] There is also above the city of God which the streams of the river make glad,[1064] a torrent of pleasure,[1065] a cup which inebriates, how goodly![1066] Here, in the midst, truly is found the knowledge of good and evil,[1067] and in this place we may receive the trial of pleasure and of affliction.[1068] Unhappy Eve brought us into these alternations. Here clearly is day and night; for in the lower world there is only night, and in heaven only day.[1069] Blessed is the soul which passes through both, neither ensnared by pleasure nor fainting at tribulation.[1070]

6. I think it right to relate to you, briefly, a specimen of the many splendid deeds of this man, in which he is known to have gone, with no little vigour, through fire and water.[1071] A tyrannous race laid claim to the metropolitan see of Patrick, the great apostle of the Irish, creating archbishops in regular succession, and possessing the sanctuary of God by hereditary right.[1072] Our Malachy was therefore asked by the faithful to combat such great evils; and putting his life in his hand[1073] he advanced to the attack with vigour, he undertook the archbishopric, exposing himself to evident danger, that he might put an end to so great a crime. Surrounded by perils he ruled the church; when the perils were passed, immediately he canonically ordained another as his successor. For he had undertaken the office on this condition, that when the fury of persecution had ceased and it thus became possible that another should safely be appointed, he should be allowed to return to his own see.[1074] And there, without ecclesiastical or secular revenues he lived in the religious communities which he himself had formed, dwelling among them up to this time as one of themselves, and abjuring all personal property.[1075] So the fire of affliction tried[1076] the man of God, but did not consume[1077] him; for he was gold. So neither did pleasure hold him captive or destroy him, nor did he stand a curious spectator on the way, forgetful of his own pilgrimage.

7. Which of you, brothers, would not earnestly desire to imitate his holiness, if he dared even to hope for such an attainment? I believe, therefore, you will gladly hear, if I perchance can tell it, what made Malachy holy. But lest our testimony should seem not easy to be received, hear what the Scripture says: He made him holy in his faith and meekness.[1078] By faith he trampled on the world, as John bears witness when he says, This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.[1079] For in the spirit of meekness[1080] he endured all things whatsoever that were hard and contrary with good cheer.[1081] On the one hand, indeed, after the example of Christ, by faith he trampled on the seas,[1082] lest he should be entangled in pleasures; on the other, in his patience he possessed his soul,[1083] lest he should be crushed by troubles. For concerning these two things you have the saying in the Psalm, A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand;[1084] for many more are cast down by the deceitfulness of prosperity than by the lashes of adversity. Therefore, dearly beloved, let none of us, allured by the level surface of the easier way, suppose that road of the sea to be more convenient for himself. This plain[1085] has great mountains, invisible indeed, but for that very reason more dangerous. That way perhaps seems more laborious which passes through the steeps of the hills and the ruggedness of rocks; but to them that have tried it, it is found far safer and more to be desired. But on both sides there is labour, on both sides danger, as he knew who said, By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left;[1086] so that we may rightly rejoice with those that went through fire and water and have been brought into a wealthy place.[1087] Do you wish to hear something about the wealthy place? Would that another might speak to you of it. For as for me, that which I have not tasted I cannot indite.

8. But I seem to hear Malachy saying to me to-day about this wealthy place, Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee: for he hath delivered my soul from death, [mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling].[1088] And what I understand to be expressed in those words hear in a few sentences; for the day is far spent,[1089] and I have spoken at greater length than I intended, because I am unwilling to tear myself away from the sweetness of the father's name, and my tongue, dreading to be silent about Malachy, fears to cease. The death of the soul,[1090] my brothers, is sin; unless you have overlooked that which you have read in the prophet: The soul that sinneth, it shall die.[1091] Threefold, then, is the rejoicing of the man, since he is delivered from all sin, and from labour, and from danger. For from this time neither is sin said to dwell in him,[1092] nor is the sorrow of penitence enjoined, nor from henceforth is he warned to guard himself from any falling.[1093] Elijah[1094] has laid aside his mantle;[1095] it was not that he feared, it was not that he was afraid that it should be touched, still less retained, by an adulteress.[1096] He went up into the chariot;[1097] he is not now in terror of falling; he mounts delightfully; he labours not to fly by his own power, but sits in a swift vehicle. To this wealthy place, dearly beloved, let us run with all eagerness of spirit, in the fragrance of the ointments of this our blessed father, who this day has been seen to have stirred up our torpor to most fervent desire. Let us run after him, I say, crying to him again and again, "Draw us after thee";[1098] and, with earnest heart and advancing holiness of life, returning devout thanks to the Almighty Pity, that He has willed that His unworthy servants, who are without merits of their own, should at least not be without the prayers of another.

Sermon II

(November 2, 1149)[1099]

1. It is clear, dearly beloved, that whilst we are detained in the body we are absent from the Lord.[1100] And throughout this wretched time of detention banishment and conscience of faults enjoins upon us sorrow rather than joy. But because by the mouth of the apostle we are exhorted to rejoice with them that do rejoice,[1101] the time and the occasion require that we should be stirred up to all gladness. For if it is true, as the prophet perceived, that the righteous rejoice before God,[1102] without doubt Malachy rejoices, who in his days[1103] pleased God[1104] and was found righteous.[1105] Malachy ministered in holiness and righteousness before Him:[1106]the ministry pleased Him; the minister also pleased Him. Why should he not please Him? He made the Gospel without charge,[1107] he filled the country with the Gospel, he tamed the deathly barbarism of his Irishmen, with the sword of the spirit[1108] he subdued foreign nations to the light yoke of Christ,[1109] restoring His inheritance to Him[1110] even unto the ends of the earth.[1111] O, fruitful ministry! O, faithful minister! Is not the promise of the Father to the Son fulfilled through him? Did not the Father behold him long ago when He said to the Son, I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.[1112] How willingly the Saviour received what He had bought,[1113] and had bought with the price[1114] of His own blood,[1115] with the shame of the Cross, with the horror of the Passion. How willingly from the hands of Malachy, because he ministered freely.[1116] So in the minister the freely executed office was acceptable,[1117] and in the ministry the conversion of sinners was pleasing. Acceptable and pleasing, I say, in the minister was the singleness of eye,[1118] but in the ministry the salvation of the people.[1119]

2. However, even though a less effective result of the ministry followed, He would nevertheless justly have had regard to Malachy and his works, He to whom purity is a friend and single-mindedness one of his household, to whose righteousness it belongs to weigh the work in accordance with its purpose, from the character of the eye to measure the state of the whole body.[1120] But now the works of the Lord are great, sought out according to all the desires[1121] and efforts of Malachy; they are great and many and very good,[1122] though better in proportion to the good origin of the pure purpose. What work of piety escaped the attention of Malachy? He was poor as regards himself, but rich to the poor. He was a father of the fatherless, a husband of the widows,[1123] a protector of the oppressed. A cheerful giver,[1124] seldom making petitions, modest in receiving gifts. He was specially solicitous, and had much success, in restoring peace between those who were at variance. Who was as tender as he in sharing the sufferings of others? who as ready to help? who as free in rebuke? For he was zealous, and yet not wanting in knowledge, the restrainer of zeal. And, indeed, to the weak he was weak,[1125] but none the less strong to the strong: he resisted the proud,[1126] he lashed the tyrants, a teacher of kings and princes. It was he who by prayer deprived a king of sight when he worked wickedness, and restored it when he was humbled.[1127] It was he, when certain men broke a peace which he had made, who gave them up to the spirit of error,[1128] and foiled them in the evil which they devised to do; and who compelled them to accept peace a second time, confounded and stunned by that which had happened to them. It was he[1129] to whom a river most opportunely lent its aid against the others, who were equally transgressors of a covenant.[1130] In wonderful fashion, by throwing itself before them, it made void the efforts of the ungodly. There had been no rains, no floods of waters, no gathering of clouds, no melting of snows, when suddenly the mere rivulet was converted into a great river; and it rushed along[1131] and swelling up overflowed the banks, and utterly denied passage to those who wished to do wickedly.[1132]

3. What things we have heard and known of the wrath of the man and his vengeance on his enemies, while yet he was sweet and gentle and plenteous in mercy unto all[1133] that suffered need! For he lived for all as though he were the one parent of all.[1134] As a hen her chickens,[1135] so he cherished all and protected them under the covert of his wings.[1136] He made no distinction of sex or age, of condition or person;[1137] he failed none, his loving heart embraced all. In whatsoever affliction men cried to him he counted it his own: even more than that, for in regard to his own afflictions he was patient, in regard to those of others he was compassionate, very often even passionate. For indeed sometimes, filled with wrath, he was stirred to take the part of one against another, that by delivering the poor and restraining the strong[1138] he might take thought in equal measure for the salvation of all. Therefore he was angry; but it was in order that he might not sin by not being angry, according to the words of the Psalm, Be ye angry and sin not.[1139] Anger did not rule him, but he himself ruled his spirit.[1140] He had power over himself. Assuredly he who had the victory over himself could not be mastered by anger.[1141] His anger was kept in hand. When it was summoned it came, going forth, not bursting forth; it was brought into action by his will, not by impulse. He was not set on fire by it, but used it.[1142] As well in this as in ruling and restraining all the motions both of his inner and his outer man[1143] his judgement was careful, his caution great. For he did not give so much attention to all, as to leave himself alone out of account, as, in his universal solicitude, to disregard only himself. He was careful of himself also. He guarded himself.[1144] In fact, he was so wholly his own, so wholly also belonged to all, that his love seemed in no degree to hinder or delay him from his guardianship of himself, nor his concern for his own person from the common good.[1145] If you saw the man busied in the midst of crowds, involved in cares, you would say he was born for his country, not for himself.[1146] If you saw the man alone and dwelling by himself, you would suppose that he lived for God alone and for himself.

4. Without tumult he went about among tumults; without ease he spent the time which he gave to ease. How could he be taking his ease[1147] when he was occupied in the statutes of the Lord?[1148] For though he had time free from the necessities of the peoples, yet had he none unoccupied by holy meditations, by the work of prayer, by the ease itself of contemplation. In the time of ease he spoke gravely or not at all. His mien was either courteous, or humble and self-restrained. Assuredly—a trait which is counted worthy of much praise among the wise—his eye was in his head,[1149] never flying forth except when it was obedient to power. His laughter displayed love, or provoked it: but even so it was rare. Sometimes indeed, it came forth, but it was never forced, intimating the gladness of his heart in such a way that his mouth did not lose but gained in grace.[1150] So modest was it that it could not be suspected of levity; so gentle,[1151] however, that it sufficed to free his joyous countenance from every trace and shadow of sadness.[1152] O perfect gift! O rich burnt sacrifice![1153] O pleasing service in mind and hand! How sweet unto God is the savour[1154] of him who employs his leisure in prayers, how sweet unto men of him who is occupied in fatiguing labours.

5. Because he was such an one, then, beloved of God[1155] and men, not undeservedly was Malachy received this day into the company of angels, having attained in fact what his name denoted.[1156] And indeed, already he was an angel not less in purity than in name. But now more happily is the significance of his glorious name fulfilled in him, since he is glad with a glory and happiness equal to that of the angels.[1157] Let us also, dearly beloved, be glad because our angel ascended[1158] to his fellow-citizens, acting as an ambassador for the children of the captivity,[1159] winning for us the favour of the blessed ones, declaring to them the desires of the wretched. Let us be glad, I say, and rejoice,[1160] because in that heavenly court[1161] there is one who went forth from us to take care of us,[1162] to protect us by his merits,[1163] whom he instructed[1164] by his example and strengthened[1165] by his miracles.

6. The holy pontiff, who in a humble spirit[1166] often brought peace-offerings to the heavens, to-day in his own person has gone unto the altar of God,[1167] himself the victim and the priest. With the departure of the priest the rite of sacrifice is changed into a better thing. The fountain of tears[1168] is dried up, every burnt sacrifice is made with gladness and rejoicing.[1169] Blessed be the Lord God of Malachy, who by the ministry of so great a pontiff hath visited his people,[1170] and now, taking him up into the holy city,[1171] ceaseth not, by the remembrance of so great sweetness to comfort our captivity.[1172] Let the spirit of Malachy rejoice in the Lord,[1173] because he is freed from the heavy load of the body, and is no longer hindered, by the weight of impure and earthly matter, from passing with all eagerness and fullness of life, through the whole creation, corporeal and incorporeal, that he may enter entirely into God, and joined to Him may with Him be one spirit[1174] for ever.[1175]

7. Holiness becometh that house[1176] in which the remembrance of so great holiness[1177] is celebrated. Holy Malachy, preserve it in holiness and righteousness[1178] pitying us who in the midst of so many and great miseries utter the memory of thine abundant goodness.[1179] Great is the dispensation of the mercy of God upon thee, who made thee little in thine own sight,[1180] great in His; who did great things by thee, in saving thy country, great things to thee,[1181] in bringing thee into His glory. May thy festival, which is deservedly devoted to thy virtues, have a saving efficacy for us by thy merits and prayers. May the glory of thy holiness,[1182] which is celebrated by us, be continued by angels: so shall it meetly be pleasant for us, if it be also fruitful. While thou departest be it allowed to us, who are met together to-day in thy so delicious feast, to preserve some remnants of the fruits of the Spirit, loaded with which thou ascendest.

8. Be to us, we beseech thee, holy Malachy, another Moses, or another Elijah, like them imparting of thy spirit[1183] to us, for thou hast come in their spirit and power.[1184] Thy life was a law of life and knowledge,[1185] thy death the port of death and the portal of life,[1186] thy memory the delight of sweetness and grace, thy presence a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord[1187] thy God. O fruitful olive tree in the house of God![1188] O oil of gladness,[1189] giving both anointing and light, cherishing with favours, resplendent with miracles,[1190] make us partakers of that light and graciousness which thou enjoyest.[1191] O sweet-smelling lily, blossoming and budding evermore before the Lord, and spreading everywhere a sweet and life-giving savour,[1192] whose memorial is blessed[1193] with us, whose presence is in honour with those who are above, grant to those who sing of thee that they may not be deprived of their share in so great an assembly.[1194] O great luminary[1195] and light that shinest in darkness,[1196] illuminating the prison, making glad the city[1197] by the rays of thy signs and merits, by the lustre of virtues put to flight from our hearts the darkness of vices. O morning star,[1198] more brilliant than the rest because thou art nearer the day, more like to the sun, deign to go before us, that we also may walk in the light as children of light, and not children of darkness.[1199] O thou who art the dawn breaking into day upon the earth, but the noon light[1200] illumining the higher regions of heaven, receive us in the fellowship of light, by which illuminated thou sheddest light far without, and sweetly burnest within, by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigneth One God, world without end.—Amen.

FOOTNOTES:

[1005] The evidence that this discourse was delivered on the day of Malachy's death is cumulative. (1) The opening words of Sec. 1, and the closing sentences of Sec. 8 (note "this day"). (2) The statement in Sec. 5, "He said to us, 'With desire I have desired,'" etc., implies that those who tended Malachy in his sickness were present (see Life, Sec. 73). The first person plural in Sec. 2 suggests the same conclusion. (3) In Sec. 6, "dwelling among them up to this time" implies that his death was not long past. (4) The striking parallels with Letter iv.; for which see the notes on it. (5) The tone of the sermon—in marked contrast to that of Sermon ii.—indicates that the community was crushed with sorrow for a recent bereavement. See R.I.A. xxxv. 255 ff.

[1006] damnum uestrum ... damnationem meam.

[1007] Lam. iv. 4 (inexact quotation).

[1008] Acts ii. 23.

[1009] Cp. Matt. x. 29.

[1010] Cp. St. Bernard, De Laud. Virg. i. 1 (P.L. clxxxiii. 56): "For if neither a leaf from a tree falls on the earth without cause, nor one of the sparrows without the heavenly Father, am I to suppose that a superfluous word flows from the mouth of the holy evangelist?"

[1011] Matt. xii. 42.

[1012] See Life, Sec. 67.

[1013] See Life, Sec. 69.

[1014] Gal. iv. 14 (inexact quotation).

[1015] Cp. Eph. iv. 2.

[1016] He was evidently in haste to resume his journey. And no wonder, for the winter was drawing near, and the sooner the passage of the Alps was made the better for his comfort and safety. Cp. R.I.A. xxxv. 248. "Alpine passes ... become impassable usually about the commencement or middle of October, and remain closed until May" (Sennett, Great St. Bernard, p. 369).

[1017] Heb. xi. 40.

[1018] See Life, Sec. 71.

[1019] Ps. xxi. 2.

[1020] See Life, Secs. 67, 71.

[1021] The translation is supposed by Henriquez, Fasciculus Sanctorum Ordinis Cisterciensis, ii. 41. 6 (P.L. lxxxv. 1559) to have been made on All Saints' Day, the bones being reburied on All Souls' Day. But Vacandard (R.Q.H. lii. 41 f.) thinks that the date of the translation was Saturday, October 30. This event probably marked the end of the construction of the new monastery of Clairvaux, which began before Malachy's first visit. See p. 71, n. 4.

[1022] Gal. ii. 9.

[1023] Ps. lxxxvi. 17 (vg.).

[1024] Matt. xii. 42.

[1025] 2 Macc. iii. 32 (vg.).

[1026] 1 Tim. ii. 8.

[1027] Rom. x. 15.

[1028] Cp. Luke vii. 38.—Perhaps a reference to St. Bernard's own action just before this sermon was preached. See p. 129, n. 6.

[1029] Mal. ii. 7.

[1030] Ps. xxxvii. 30.

[1031] Ps. ci. 1.

[1032] Jas. i. 15.

[1033] Cp. 2 Cor. xi. 3; 1 Tim. ii. 14.—See J. H. Bernard on 2 Cor. xi. 3 (Expositor's Greek Testament).

[1034] 1 Tim. ii. 14.

[1035] Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2.

[1036] 1 Cor. vi. 15, etc.

[1037] Eph. iv. 15, etc.

[1038] 1 Cor. xv. 54, combined with 2 Cor. v. 4.

[1039] Cp. Cant. xxvi. 11: "Thou art dead, O death, and pierced by the hook thou hast imprudently swallowed, which saith in the words of the prophet, 'O death, I will be thy death! O hell, I will be thy bite.' Pierced, I say, by that hook, to the faithful who go through the midst of thee thou offerest a broad and pleasant path-way into life" (Morison's translation). A very old metaphor. It is thus explained by Rufinus (A.D. 400) in his Commentary on the Apostles' Creed (Sec. 16, Heurtley's translation): "The object of that mystery of the Incarnation ... was that the divine virtue of the Son of God, as though it were a hook concealed beneath the form and fashion of human flesh, ... might lure on the prince of this world to a conflict, to whom offering His flesh as a bait, His divinity underneath might secure him, caught with a hook by the shedding of His immaculate blood.... As, if a fish seizes a baited hook, it not only does not take the bait off the hook, but is drawn out of the water to be itself food for others, so he who had the power of death seized the body of Jesus in death, not being aware of the hook of divinity enclosed within it, but, having swallowed it, he was caught forthwith, and the bars of hell being burst asunder, he was drawn forth as it were from the abyss to become food for others."

[1040] Ps. lxxxix. 48 (vg.).

[1041] 1 John iii. 8.

[1042] 1 John ii. 13, 14.

[1043] Matt. xxv. 41.

[1044] Rev. xii. 12.

[1045] Jer. l. 23.

[1046] 1 Cor. xii. 7 (vg.).

[1047] Matt. x. 25.

[1048] Col. ii. 14.

[1049] Rom. vi. 12.

[1050] Rom. vii. 17.

[1051] 1 Cor. xv. 55 (vg.).

[1052] 1 Cor. xv. 26.

[1053] Heb. ii. 14; Tobit ii. 8.

[1054] Ps. cxxvii. 2, 3 (vg.).

[1055] Ps. xxxiv. 21 (vg.).

[1056] Ps. cxvi. 15.

[1057] Communio for All Saints (Wisd. iii. 2, 3).

[1058] Eph. ii. 19 (with variant).

[1059] Ps. lxvi. 12.

[1060] Hos. x. 15 (vg.: xi. 1).

[1061] Luke xxii. 15.—See Life, Sec. 73, where for "he said to us" we have "lifting up his eyes on those who stood round him, he said."

[1062] Ps. lxvi. 12.

[1063] Luke xvi. 24, 25.

[1064] Ps. xlvi. 4.

[1065] Ps. xxxvi. 8 (vg.).

[1066] Ps. xxiii. 5 (vg.).

[1067] Gen. ii. 9.

[1068] 2 Cor. viii. 2.

[1069] Rev. xxi. 25; xxii. 5.

[1070] Eph. iii. 13.

[1071] Ps. lxvi. 12.

[1072] Ps. lxxxiii 12 (vg.).

[1073] 1 Sam. xix. 5.

[1074] See Life, Secs. 19-31.

[1075] See p. 82, n. 5.

[1076] Ps. lxvi. 10, 11.

[1077] Examinauit, non exinaniuit.

[1078] Ecclus. xlv. 4 (vg.).

[1079] 1 John v. 4.

[1080] Gal. vi. 1.

[1081] 1 Kings xxi. 7 (vg.).

[1082] Cp. Matt. xiv. 25; John vi. 19.

[1083] Luke xxi. 19.

[1084] Ps. xci. 7.

[1085] That is, the sea. The details of the imagery are not clear. But evidently the sea represents the pleasures, and the hills and rocks the adversities, of life.

[1086] 2 Cor. vi. 7.

[1087] Ps. lxvi. 12.

[1088] Ps. cxvi. 7, 8 (vg.).—The printed text has, in place of the bracketed words, "and so forth." The threefold deliverance obviously corresponds to the threefold rejoicing mentioned below, sin being substituted for death in the description of it, because "the death of the soul is sin."

[1089] Luke xxiv. 29.

[1090] Cp. Ps. cxvi. 8.

[1091] Ezek. xviii. 4.

[1092] Rom. vii. 17, 20.

[1093] Ps. cxvi. 8.

[1094] For other comparisons of Malachy with Elijah, see Life, Sec. 23; Serm. ii. Sec. 8.

[1095] 2 Kings ii. 13.

[1096] Gen. xxxix. 12, 15 (vg.).

[1097] 2 Kings ii. 11.

[1098] Cant. i. 3, 4.

[1099] It is plain from Sec. 7 that this sermon was preached on an anniversary of Malachy's death, i.e. on November 2, in a year later than 1148. I put it in 1149 because of its striking coincidences with the Life, which was written early in that year (see p. lxv). There is also a possible echo (Sec. 3) of De Cons. i. which belongs to the same year (P.L. clxxxii. 723). These, together with two coincidences of phrase with other writings of St. Bernard, are pointed out in the notes. See R.I.A. xxxv. 260 ff.

[1100] 2 Cor. v. 6.

[1101] Rom. xii. 15.

[1102] Ps. lxviii. 3.

[1103] Ecclus. xliv. 7.

[1104] Ecclus. xliv. 16 (vg.).

[1105] Ecclus. xliv. 17.

[1106] Luke i. 75.

[1107] 1 Cor. ix. 18.—Cp. Life, Sec. 43 (p. 84).

[1108] Eph. vi. 17.

[1109] Matt. xi. 30.

[1110] Ps. xvi. 5 (vg.).

[1111] Isa. xlviii. 20; Jer. xxv. 31.

[1112] Ps. ii. 8.

[1113] 2 Pet. ii. 1.

[1114] 1 Cor. vi. 20.

[1115] Acts xx. 28.

[1116] 2 Cor. xi. 7.

[1117] Gratum erat munus gratuitum.

[1118] Matt. vi. 22; Luke xi. 34.

[1119] Hab. iii. 13.

[1120] Matt. vi. 22, 23; Luke xi. 34, 35.

[1121] Ps. cxi. 2 (vg.).

[1122] Gen. i. 31.

[1123] Ps. lxviii. 5.

[1124] 2 Cor. ix. 7.

[1125] 1 Cor. ix. 22.

[1126] Jas. iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5.

[1127] See Life, Sec. 60.

[1128] 1 John iv. 6.

[1129] Printed text, Ipse enim est. With A I omit enim.

[1130] Josh. vii. 15, etc.

[1131] So A: cicius (= citius) ibat for riuus ibat of the printed text.

[1132] The story is told much more fully in Life, Secs. 58, 59; where there are many similarities in phraseology to the present passage. In both places it is connected with the miraculous blinding of the king, immediately preceding it here, immediately following it there.

[1133] Ps. lxxxvi. 5 (vg.).

[1134] Cp. the description of Malchus, Life, Sec. 8: "He was reverenced by all, as the one father of all"; and of Malachy, Sec. 33: "the loving father of all."

[1135] Matt. xxiii. 37.

[1136] Ps. lxi. 4 (vg.).

[1137] Cp. Life, Sec. 42: "Neither sex nor age, nor condition nor profession, is held in account."

[1138] Ps. xxxv. 10

[1139] Ps. iv. 4 (vg.).

[1140] Prov. xvi. 32.

[1141] Job xxxvi. 18 (vg.).

[1142] Non urebatur illa, sed utebatur.

[1143] Utriusque hominis sui.

[1144] 1 Tim. v. 22.

[1145] Cp. De Cons. i. 6: "If you desire wholly to belong to all ... I praise your humility, but only if it is complete. But how can it be complete if you exclude yourself? And you are a man. Then, that your humanity also may be complete, let the bosom which receives all gather you also within itself ... wherefore, where all possess you let you yourself also be one of those who possess."

[1146] Lucan, Phars. ii. 383.

[1147] Cp. De Cons. iv. 12, "In ease not taking ease;" Life, Sec. 43, "Quiet often, but by no means at any time taking ease."

[1148] Ps. cxix. 23.

[1149] Eccles. ii. 14 (inexact quotation).

[1150] Cp. Luke iv. 22.

[1151] Tantillus. The text seems to be corrupt. Read tam laetus?

[1152] Cp. Life, Sec. 43: "Yea, what was there that was not edifying," etc.

[1153] Ps. xx. 3 (vg.).

[1154] 2 Cor. ii. 15.

[1155] 1 Thess. i. 4 (vg.); 2 Thess. ii. 13.

[1156] That is, Malachias, the Hebrew for my angel, with a Latin termination. For its origin see Life, Sec. 12.

[1157] At this point, with A, I omit a passage which is identical with the first half of Serm. i. Sec. 5, and interrupts the argument. With A, also, in the following sentence I read Laetemur et nos dilectissimi quod for Laetemur quod of the printed text. See R.I.A. xxxv. 260-262.

[1158] Judg. xiii. 20.

[1159] Dan. vi. 13; Ezra iv. 1.

[1160] Ps. ix. 2.

[1161] Curia.

[1162] Cui sit cura nostri.

[1163] Cp. Lett. iv. Sec. 2.

[1164] Informauit.

[1165] Confirmauit.

[1166] Song of Three Children, 16.

[1167] Ps. xliii. 4.

[1168] Jer. ix. 1.

[1169] Ps. xlv. 15.

[1170] Luke i. 68.

[1171] Matt. iv. 5.

[1172] Ps. cxxvi. 1, 4 (vg.).

[1173] Luke i. 47.

[1174] 1 Cor. vi. 17.

[1175] See De Cons. v. 2, quoted p. 127, n. 13, and the sermon on the Marriage of the Soul with the Word (Cant. lxxxiii. 6), in which St. Bernard, quoting 1 Cor. vi. 17, says, "Love ... joins the two in one spirit, makes them no longer two but one." Cp. also Cant. xxvi. 5: "He that is joined to God is one spirit, and is wholly changed into a certain divine feeling, and cannot think of or mind anything but God, and that which God thinks and minds, being full of God." For the last phrase see Ignatius, Magn. 14.

[1176] Ps. xciii. 5.

[1177] Ps. xxx. 4.

[1178] Luke i. 75.

[1179] Ps. cxlv. 7 (vg.).

[1180] 1 Sam. xv. 17 (inexact quotation).

[1181] Luke i. 49.

[1182] Ps. cxlv. 5 (vg.).

[1183] Num. xi. 25; 2 Kings ii. 9, 15.

[1184] Luke i. 17.—See p. 151, n. 3.

[1185] Ecclus. xlv. 5.

[1186] The same phrase occurs in Life, Sec. 75, similarly applied.

[1187] Isa. lxii. 3.

[1188] Ps. lii. 8 (vg.).

[1189] Ps. xlv. 7 (vg.).

[1190] Epiphany Collect.

[1191] Cp. Life, Sec. 47 (p. 88).

[1192] Isa. xxvii. 6, combined with Hos. xiv. 5, and Ecclus. xxxix. 14.

[1193] Ecclus. xlv. 1.

[1194] Ecclus. xxiv. 2, 12 (vg.). The clauses containing the word assembly (plenitudo) are omitted in R.V.

[1195] Ps. cxxxvi. 7.

[1196] John i. 4.

[1197] Ps. xlvi. 4.

[1198] Ecclus. l. 6.

[1199] 1 John i. 7, combined with 1 Thess. v. 5.

[1200] Isa. xviii. 4 (vg.).



ADDITIONAL NOTES

A.—St. Bernard's Description of the State of the Irish Church.

Life, Secs. 7, 16, 17.

In two passages of the Life serious charges are made against the Irish Church of the early years of the twelfth century. These charges refer primarily to the dioceses of Armagh and Connor; but it is probable that those dioceses were typical of many other districts throughout the country. If St. Bernard's statements are true of them, they may be applied with little reserve to the greater part of Ireland. Indeed he himself gives us more than a hint that the abuses which he condemns were by no means confined to eastern Ulster (Sec. 19). It may be well, therefore, to bring them together and to discuss them.

1. There was no such thing as chanting at the canonical hours. In the whole bishopric of Armagh "there was none who could or would sing" (Sec. 7). "In the churches [of Connor] there was not heard the voice either of preacher or singer" (Sec. 16). We may suspect that there is some exaggeration here; for if church song was absolutely unknown, how could Malachy have "learnt singing in his youth" (Sec. 7)? But that St. Bernard's remarks are substantially correct need not be questioned. He is not speaking of the Irish Church as it was in its earlier period, but of its state at the time when it had probably fallen to its lowest depth. His assertion, therefore, is not disposed of by references to the chanting at the funerals of Brian Boroimhe in 1014 and Maelsechlainn in 1022 (O'Hanlon, p. 34). Indeed in the notices of those events in A.F.M. there is no express mention of ecclesiastical song.

2. At Armagh Confession was not practised (Sec. 7); in the diocese of Connor "nowhere could be found any who would either seek penance or impose it" (Sec. 16). It may be true that Confession had been much neglected among some classes of the people: Malachy on one occasion met a woman who had never confessed (Sec. 54), and the very fact that he put the question to her "whether she had ever confessed her sins" suggests that she was not singular in this respect. But it is remarkable that the anmchara (soul-friend), or Confessor, is frequently mentioned in Irish literature. The obits of several persons to whom that title is given are recorded in the Annals in the twelfth century. And penance is often alluded to in the obituary notices of distinguished persons, clerical and lay. In his sweeping statement St. Bernard may have had in mind some differences of method in penitential discipline between the Roman and Irish Churches.

3. The sacrament of Confirmation was not celebrated, at any rate in Armagh (Sec. 7). This rite has always been used in the Irish Church, though possibly neglected locally at some periods. St. Patrick tells us that he "confirmed in Christ" those whom he had "begotten to God" (Epistle, 2; cp. Confession, 38, 51)—thus giving us one of the earliest instances in literature of the application to the rite of its present familiar name. But in his practice (Epistle, Sec. 3), as in the Stowe Missal, about A.D. 800 (ed. Sir G. F. Warner, vol. ii. p. 31), it seems to have consisted of an anointing with chrism without laying on, or raising, of hand, or a direct prayer for the Holy Spirit. According to the Stowe Missal it was administered by a presbyter. It is improbable that St. Bernard or his romanizing friends would recognize the rite so performed as true Confirmation.

4. One of the things which was neglected at Armagh was "the marriage contract" (Sec. 7). In the diocese of Connor there was "no entry into lawful marriages" (Sec. 16). By the labours of Malachy this abuse disappeared. In Armagh he "instituted anew" the marriage contract; in Connor it came to pass that "the celebration of marriage" was revived (Sec. 17). Putting these statements together we may conclude that St. Bernard's meaning is that marriages had ceased to be celebrated in the face of the Church, and that in consequence the vow of a life-long union was often evaded. Now contemporary writers charge the Irish of this period with loose sexual morality, especially in regard of arbitrary divorce, matrimony within the prohibited degrees, exchange of wives, and other breaches of the law of marriage. Such accusations are made, for example, by Pope Gregory VII. (Haddan and Stubbs, Eccl. Docs. ii. 160), Lanfranc (Ussher, 490; P.L. cl. 535, 536), Anselm (Ussher 521, 523; P.L. clix. 173, 178) and Giraldus Cambrensis (Gest. ii. 14; Top. iii. 19). Their evidence is the more worthy of credence because the usages to which they refer were characteristic of the Irish at an earlier period (Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, v. 456, 460), and might be expected to recur in an age of spiritual decline. But both Lanfranc and Anselm testify to the existence of marriage as an institution among the Irish. The former speaks of the divorce of a wife "lawfully joined to her husband," and the latter uses terms of similar import. So also does St. Bernard himself. His praise of Malachy's mother (Life, Sec. 1) is inconceivable if she did not live in wedlock; and he expressly states that eight "metropolitans" of Armagh were "married men" (Sec. 19). But if there was nevertheless a revival among large sections of the people of pagan ideas of marriage, which tolerated polygamy, concubinage, incest and easy termination of unions, it can be understood that marriage in the face of the Church, which included a vow absolutely prohibitive of all these things, would be commonly avoided. Malachy's anxiety to restore the marriage ceremony was no doubt due to a desire to purge the nation of immoral customs of which St. Bernard makes no express mention. But, however that may be, we have contemporary native evidence that the rite of marriage had fallen into desuetude, and that Malachy was successful in his effort to restore it. For in the document quoted on p. 170, we are told that in a district which was part of the diocese of Armagh when he was Cellach's vicar (L.A.J. iv. 37), and under the rule of his patron, Donough O'Carroll, "marriage was assented to."