Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

The foremost reformer of his age, Bernard of Clairvaux spearheaded the Cistercian movement, reestablishing serious discipline and spirituality in the corrupt Benedictine monasteries. His mystical thought is enormously influential, and deservedly so, but he was also, like many reformers, very much a vis mere conservative who opposed the progressive philosophical movement of his age. This was a time when philosophy was freeing itself from theology, with the establishment of schools of logic and the liberal arts that were no longer under the thumb of the theologians, where faculty interest centered on nontheological issues. Bernard is especially known for his attacks on Peter Abelard and Gilbert de la Porree (1076--1154). (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre