company it was: the old, stooping monk and the young beginner, the lord
and the peasant, listening together to the man whose message they
believed came from another world.

_III.--St. Bernard and the Second Crusade_

In the meanwhile, the affairs of the Papacy had not improved--Innocent
was still an exile from his see. Worst of all, the monastery of Monte
Casino, the head and type of Western monarchism, had declared for
Anacletus, the anti-Pope; and in 1137 Bernard set out for Italy, visited
Innocent at Viterbo, and proceeded to Rome. As he advanced, Anacletus
was rapidly deserted by his supporters, and shortly afterwards solved
the difficulty by his death. So ended the schism; and Bernard left Rome
within five days after finishing his work. With broken health and
depressed spirits he returned to Clairvaux. His brother Gerard, who had
shared his journey, died soon after they reached home; and Bernard's
discourse on that event is one of the most remarkable funeral sermons on
record. The monk had not ceased to be a loving and impassioned man.

Towards the end of 1139, the heresies of Peter Abelard, brought to his
notice by William of St. Thierry, called the Abbot of Clairvaux again
into public controversy. He implored Pope and cardinals to stay the
progress of a second Arius. Abelard was at this time sixty-one years
old, Bernard's senior by twelve years, and was without a rival in the
schools. The two men were such that they could not but oppose one
another; they looked at the shield from opposite sides; reconciliation,
however desirable, could be only superficial. Bernard met Abelard, and
"admonished him secretly." He well knew to what epoch this subtle mind,
with its "human and philosophic reasons," was about to lead; his quick
ear caught the distant thunder-roll of free inquiry. The heresies of
Peter de Bruis and the rebellion of Arnold of Brescia had already marked
the beginning of the great change. At last Bernard unwillingly yielded
to Abelard's challenge to a public dispute at Sens; but his speech had
hardly begun when Abelard rose in his place, refused to hear more, and
appealed to Rome. He never reached Rome, but remained a penitent monk at
Cluny, reconciled to his great antagonist.

Bernard was fifty-five years of age, and old for his years, when the
Pope delegated to him the office of preaching the Second Crusade. Pale
and attenuated to a degree which seemed almost supernatural, his
contemporaries discov