volume one

HISTOET OF THE CEUSADES. 339
and listened to the abbot of Clairvaux, wlio preached to them
in a language they did not understand, and returned convinced
of the truth and holiness of the discourse. The
sight of a preacher so much reverenced, appeared to bestovv^
a marvellous sense upon every one of his "words. The miracles
which were attributed to him, and which were performed
sometimes in private, sometimes in public, as Otho of Frisingen
says, were like a divine language which warmed the
most indifferent, and persuaded the most iacredulous. Shepherds
and labourers abandoned the fields to follow him into
towns and cities ; when he arrived in a city, all laboiu-s were
suspended. The war against the infidels,, and the prodigies
by which God promised his protection to the soldiers of the
cross, became the only business of men of all classes. Sometimes
the abbot of Clairvaux assembled the clergy, and
preached reform in their manners ; sometimes he addressed
the people and animated them against the Saracens.
St. Bernard Adsited all the cities of the Rhine, from Constance
to Maestricht ; in each city, say the ancient chronicles,
he restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and
cured the lame and the sick ;
they report thirty-six miracles
performed in one day, at each prodigy the multitude crying
out,* " Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us ! all the saints, succour
us!" The disciples who followed the abbot of Clairvaux
could not help regretting that the tumult which was
constantly raised upon his passage, prevented their seeing
several of his miracles. t Every day an increasing crowd
pressed around him. History relates that he was once on
the point of being stifled by the multitude w^hich followed
* These exclamations were pronounced in old German :— Christ uns
gende, die heiligen alle helffen uns.
t
Philip, archdeacon of Liege, afterwards a monk of Clairvaux, has
made a detailed relation of the miracles of St. Bernard, from the first
Sunday in Advent, the first day of December, 1146, to Thursday, the
second day of the following January. In his relations he produces ten
ocular witnesses, whose names he gives. Le Pere Maimbourg, in his
History of the Crusades, does not appear to believe in the authenticity of
the miracles of St. Bernard ; the author of the Life of Suger, 3 vols, in
12mo., sharply reproves Maimbourg for his incredulity. We do not think
it at all necessary to go into this question ; we believe it to be quite suffi-
cient to know that the contemporaries of St. Bernard had faith in his
miracles, and that this faith made them perform things which simple
reason might call miraculous.
16*