Bernard of

Cluny Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon. The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...

(or, of

Morlaix Morlaix (; br, Montroulez) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Leisure and tourism The old quarter of the town has winding streets of cobbled stones and overha ...

or Morlay) was a twelfth-century French

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

, best known as the author of '' De contemptu mundi'' (''On Contempt for the World''), a long verse satire in Latin.

Life

Bernard's family of origin and place of birth are not known for certain. Some medieval sources list Morlaàs in

Béarn The Béarn (; ; oc, Bearn or ''Biarn''; eu, Bearno or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three B ...

, as his birthplace. However, in some records from that period he is called ''Morlanensis'', which would indicate that he was a native of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

. A writer in the ''Journal of Theological Studies'' (1907), Volume 8, pages 394-399, contended that he belonged to the family of the seigneurs of

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

in Languedoc, and was born at

Murles Murles (; oc, Murlas) is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Hérault department The following is a list of the 342 communes of the Hérault department of ...

. It is believed that he was at first a monk of Saint-Sauveur d'Aniane and that he entered the monastery of Cluny during the administration of Abbot Pons (1109–1122).

Works

Bernard is best known as the author of '' De contemptu mundi'' (''On Contempt for the World''), a 3,000 verse poem of stinging satire directed against the secular and religious failings he observed in the world around him. He spares no one;

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

s, monks, and even Rome itself are mercilessly scourged for their shortcomings. For this reason it was first printed by

Matthias Flacius Matthias Flacius Illyricus (Latin; hr, Matija Vlačić Ilirik) or Francovich ( hr, Franković) (3 March 1520 – 11 March 1575) was a Lutheran reformer from Istria, present-day Croatia. He was notable as a theologian, sometimes dissenting strong ...

in ''Varia poemata de corrupto ecclesiae statu'' (Basle, 1557) as one of his ''testes veritatis'', or witnesses of the deep-seated corruption of medieval society and of the Church, and was often reprinted by

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Bernard of Cluny also wrote the twelfth century hymn "Omni die dic Mariae" (Daily, daily sing to Mary). Several of Bernard's sermons and a theological treatise, ''Dialogue (Colloquium) on the Trinity'' are extant, as is a ''c.'' 1140 poem which he dedicated to the monastery's

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

Peter the Venerable Peter the Venerable ( – 25 December 1156), also known as Peter of Montboissier, was the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Cluny. He has been honored as a saint, though he was never canonized in the Middle Ages. Since in 1862 Pope Pius IX c ...

(1122–1156).

Hymns

* 'Hic breve vivitur' * 'Hora novissima' * 'O hona patria' * 'Urbs Sion aurea'

Bibliography

* Bernardus Morlanensis, De contemptu mundi, Une vision du monde vers 1144 - Bernard le Clunisien. Latin text with french transl., introduction and commentary by André Cresson. (Témoins de notre histoire) Turnhout 2009. * Bernardi Cluniacensis Carmina de Trinitate et de fide catholica (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia). Stokholm, 1963. * Scorn for the world: Bernard of Cluny's De contemptu mundi. Latin text with engl. transl. and introd. by Ronald E. Pepin. Colleagues Press, East Lansing, Michigan, 1991. * The Scorn of the World: A Poem in Three Books, transl. and ed. by Henry Preble and Samuel Macauley Jackson. The American Journal of Theology vol. 10,1 (1906), pp. 72–101 (prologus and book 1
online
vol. 10,2 (1906), S. 286–308 (book 2
online
vol. 10,3 (1906), S. 496–516 (book 3
online

References

* ''Scorn for the world: Bernard of Cluny's De contemptu mundi.'' Latin Text with engl. transl. and introd. by Ronald E. Pepin. Colleagues Press, East Lansing, Michigan, 1991. * Bernardus Morlanensis, ''De contemptu mundi, Une vision du monde vers 1144 - Bernard le Clunisien''. Latin Text, French transl., introd. and annotations by André Cresson. (Témoins de notre histoire) Turnhout 2009.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard Of Cluny Cluniacs Christian apocalyptic writings 12th-century Latin writers Medieval Latin poets French Benedictines 12th-century French writers 12th-century French poets