e which took place after the
death of Pope Honorius II., as to the succession to the popedom. Two
rival factions at Rome contended for the claims of separate candidates:
one a wealthy and worldly, the other a learned and pious, cardinal.
Bernard, as we may suppose, supported the cause of the latter, who took
the name of Innocent II. At the council of Etampes, where Louis VI. of
France and his nobles were assembled, the monk's eloquence prevailed
over all the arguments of diplomacy, and the influence of France was
pledged to the side of Innocent. Bernard next engaged aid from Henry I.,
of England, and Lothaire, the Emperor of Germany. He then proceeded to
Milan, where the party of the rival Pope, Anaclete, and his supporter,
Conrad, Duke of Suabia, Lothaire's antagonist, was strongest. Bernard's
fame was so great, and the imaginations of those who beheld him so
fascinated by his force of will, that on his way the sick were carried
forth to meet him, and numerous miracles were said to be wrought by the
touch of his garments. In Milan, through his eloquence, Anaclete's party
was completely vanquished, and the Milanese so impressed that they
offered to displace their archbishop in Bernard's favor. But on this and
other occasions he steadily refused any such rank, content to live and
die in a sphere where he could be more useful, if less exalted. He
returned to France, after a lengthened absence, in 1135, meeting on his
way with a royal reception.

He was once more absorbed in the duties of his office, as Abbot of
Clairvaux, when again summoned to Italy by Innocent II., to oppose the
power of Roger, the Norman King of Sicily, whose aid Anaclete had
obtained. Bernard first passed into Germany, and successfully mediated
between the emperor and the Suabian princes, inducing the latter to
relinquish their rebellion. Lothaire was then prevailed upon to aid
Innocent by force of arms, while Bernard proceeded to employ force of
intellect in the same service. He first won over by his arguments many
of Anaclete's chief supporters, and then accepted a challenge which King
Roger threw out, to dispute publicly in the Court of Salerno as to the
claims of the rival Popes, with Anaclete's champion, Cardinal Pietro di
Pisa. At this public contest Bernard not only confuted, but converted,
the cardinal, and reconciled him to Innocent. With Roger, Bernard was
not so successful, and a battle ensued between the armies of the
contending Popes. Inn