D. SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE: UNION no

E. PSYCHO-PHYSICAL CONCOMITANTS 115
F. THE VISION OF GOD 119
ST BERNARD
ST BERNARD was born in 1090 in Burgundy. He was of noble parentage, and at the age of twenty- two he entered the newly- founded monastery of Citeaux, the cradle of the Cistercian Order. Three years later he was sent to make the foundation at Clairvaux, of which house he was abbot until his death in 1 153. The Cistercians being a strictly reformed branch of the Benedictines, their life at the beginning was one of prayer, of manual labour, of austerity, of silence, and of strict seclusion. Judged by this standard, never was there a life less Cistercian than Bernard's. He travelled all over Western Europe on missions for popes and potentates; he preached a Crusade; he controlled bishops, popes, and councils; he was mixed up in all the controversies of the day, whether of theology or ecclesiastical politics; he was the dominant ecclesiastical and reli- gious force of the time. 1 It was a life of prodigious and ceaseless activities; and the wonder of it is that to the end he continued not only the saint, but also the great contemplative that he was. This result must be attributed partly to his intellectual temperament, but mainly to his immense and overmastering love of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Intellectually he was the 'Last of the Fathers', the child of the patristic age that was passing away. He combated the beginnings of the scholastic movement, and in what he says on contemplation and mysticism there is no trace of the new methods of scholasticism which his great contemporaries, Hugh and Richard of St Victor, were already applying to a systematic presentation of a doctrine of mystical theology. Like St Gregory, he wrote no formal treatise on the subject; his doctrine has to be extracted from numerous stray passages, wherein he discourses on what is patently his own personal experience.
In the excellent study, La Spiritualite Chretienne, vol. iL, e Le Moyen Age', Abbe P. Pourrat devotes nearly one hundred pages to St Bernard. The greater part is concerned with the spiritual life in general, the section on 'Mystical Theology* covering only sixteen pages. In the former part is brought out with admirable clearness St Bernard's teaching on mortification, humility, perfection, medi- tation, prayer; and, above all, on devotion to the mysteries of Our
1 The best modern life of St. Bernard is that of Abb6 E. Vacandard, 2 vols. 1895. From another point of view, Cotter Morison's St Bernard is very remarkable, as showing the sympathy and admiration entertained for St Bernard by a Positivist.
96 WESTERN MYSTICISM
Lord's Life the Infancy, the episodes of the Passion, the Cruci- fixion: also devotion to the Blessed Virgin and to the angels. It is Pourrat's judgement that in the sphere of personal devotional life it was St Bernard who principally shaped the Catholic piety of the later Middle Ages and also of modern times. This is especially true of his expression of tender devotional love for the Humanity of Our Lord, and for His Mother. With this view Dean Inge is in sub- stantial accord:
His great achievement was to recall devout and loving con- templation to the image of the crucified Christ, and to found that worship of Our Saviour as the 'Bridegroom of the Soul 5 , which in the next centuries inspired so much fervid devotion and lyrical sacred poetry (Christian Mysticism, 140).
My treatment of St Bernard's mystical theology was completed before Pourrat's second volume had come into my hands.
The principal source of St Bernard's mystical theology is the series of eighty-six sermons on the Canticle of Solomon the e Song of Songs 5 ; like St Gregory's Morals preached as conferences to his monks. There is little on the subject to be found in his other writings which is not to be found also, and more fully, in these sermons. The Sermons on the Canticle have been translated into English by the late S. J. Eales (1896). This translation is in great measure a paraphrase, though a good one for its purpose. It has been taken as the basis of the citations that follow; but it has been controlled throughout and made more exact, especially in places where it seemed necessary to secure literal accuracy.
In laying down the lines of a spiritual course, St Bernard, starting from the opening words of the Canticle 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,' describes the three stages of the spiritual life, purgative, illuminative, unitive, under the imagery of the threefold kiss of Christ's Feet, of His Hand, and of His Mouth. This idea is worked out at length in Canticle iii. and iv.: We must first kiss the Feet of Christ, falling prostrate in sorrow and repentence for our sins; next we must kiss His Hand, which will lift us up by bestowing upon us the grace of continence, the fruits worthy of penance, and works of piety, and so make us stand upright; and then:
When we have with many prayers and tears obtained these two former graces, at length we perhaps venture to lift our eyes to that Countenance full of glory, for the purpose not only to gaze upon it, but (I say it with fear and trembling) to kiss; because the spirit before us is Christ the Lord, to Whom, being united in a holy Kiss, we are by His condescension made to be one spirit with Him (Cant iii. 5).
ST BERNARD 97
(In the kiss of the Feet) are dedicated the first-fruits of con- version; (the kiss of the Hand) shall be accorded to those who are making progress; but (the kiss of the Mouth) is rarely experienced, and by those only who are perfect. ... There are then three states of progress of souls, sufficiently well known at least to those who have experienced them, when, as far as is possible in these weak bodies of ours, they are enabled to take knowledge either of the pardon which they have received for their evil actions, or the grace which has enabled them to do good ones; or, lastly, of the very presence of Him Who is their patron and benefactor (ibid. iv. i) .
It is well at the outset to say a word on the imagery of the Sermons on the Canticle. Being based on the Canticle itself, the exposition is couched in the language of human love. St Bernard did not invent this method of interpretation: it had been in vogue for centuries and was the Christian tradition (see Eales, op. cit., 'Introductory Essay', and Inge, Christian Mysticism, App. D). It is often looked on with misgiving, as by Dean Inge, on the score of danger of erotic or sensuous elements. The matter will have to be gone into more fully at a later place. Here it will suffice to call attention to the fact that a twofold allegorical interpretation of the Bridegroom and Bride of the Canticle runs through the Sermons: (i) the Bridegroom is Jesus Christ and the Bride is the Church this is in accordance with St Paul and the Apocalypse; but (ii) when the bride is the soul of the devout individual man, the Bridegroom is not Jesus Christ in His Humanity, but the Divine Word, the Logos, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in more than one place He is called 'the Bridegroom- Word', 'Verbum Sponsus' (Cant. Ixxiv. 3). In a small number of cases this rule is broken and Jesus Christ is spoken of as the Bridegroom of the individual soul; but they are so few as to be negligible. In the following passage St Bernard makes clear what is his customary practice:
Take heed that you bring chaste ears to this discourse of love; and when you think of these two lovers, remember always that not a man and a woman are to be thought of, but the Word of God and a soul. And if I shall speak of Christ and the Church, the sense is the same, except that under the name of the Church is specified not one soul only, but the united souls of many, or rather their unanimity (Cant. hd. 2).
Still, for Bernard it is the Church that primarily is the Bride:
Though none of us would presume so far as to venture to say that his soul was the Spouse of the Lord; yet, since we are members of the Church, which justly glories in that name, and in the fact which
g8 WESTERN MYSTICISM
that name signifies, we may claim not unjustly a participation in that glory (ibid. xii. u).
The spirituality of St Bernard's conception of the 'Mystic Kiss' of Christ is seen in the following piece:
(The Kiss of His Mouth) signifies nothing else than to receive the inpouring of the Holy Spirit. . . . The Bride has the boldness to ask trustingly that the inpouring of the Holy Spirit may be granted to her under the name of a Kiss. When the Bride is praying that the Kiss may be given her., her entreaty is for the inpouring of the grace of this threefold knowledge [i.e. of Father, Son and Holy Ghost], as far as it can be experienced in this mortal body. . . . This gift conveys both the light of knowledge and the unction of piety (Cant. viii. 2-6).
In presenting St Bernard's teaching on mystical theology the attempt will be made to follow, as far as possible, the general lines of the scheme whereby was unfolded the teaching of St Augustine and that of St Gregory; but it has to be said that St Bernard's more discoursive and emotional style does not lend itself easily to such cut-and-dried treatment as was possible in the case of St Gregory, and even of St Augustine.
A. PRELIMINARY PHASES Remote Preparation: Purgation
Like SS Augustine and Gregory, St Bernard is insistent that the necessary preparation and indispensable condition for progress in contemplation is the serious exercise of asceticism, of self-discipline, mortification, and the practice of the virtues. This appears in such passages as the following:
Perhaps you desire the repose of contemplation, and in this you do well. ... But it would be a reversing of the proper order to ask for the reward before having earned it, and to grasp at the mid-day meal before performing the labour. The taste for contemplation is not due except to obedience to God's commandments. ... 'What then would you have me to do? 5 In the first place I would have you cleanse your conscience from every defilement of anger and mur- muring and envy and dispute; and that you should hasten to banish from your heart all that evidently conflicts with the peace which ought to reign among brethren, and the obedience due to your elders. In the next place I would wish you to adorn yourself with the flowers of good works and laudable studies of every kind, and seek the sweet perfumes of virtues ... and endeavour to employ yourselves in them ... that your conscience may everywhere be fragrant with the perfumes of piety, of peace, of gentleness, of justice, of obedience, of cheerfulness, of humility (Cant. xlvL 5, 7).
ST BERNARD 99
The course of the spiritual life is sketched as follows:
The Physician draws near to the wounded man. . . . What is it that it is needful he should first do? . . . The ulcer must be cut away with the sharp blade of a sincere repentance. But this cannot be done without severe pain; let that, then, be alleviated with the healing ointment of devotion, which is, in fact, the comfort caused by the hope of forgiveness. Of that hope is born the mastery which is acquired over our passions, and the victory over sin. Then are applied the remedy of penance, the poultice of fasts, of vigils, of prayers, and of other exercises of the repentant. Let him be nourished in labour with the food of good works, that he fail not. That good works are nourishment to the soul may be learned from the words: c My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.' There- fore let works of piety accompany the labours of penitence which strengthen the soul. . . . Now food arouses thirst and drink is needed. To the nourishment of good works let there be added therefore the draught of prayer. ... Prayer is as wine which maketh glad the heart of man ... it moistens the dry soil of the conscience, it brings about the perfect absorption of the food of good actions, and dis- tributes them into all the members of the soul; strengthening faith, giving vigour to hope, rendering charity active and yet well ordered, and shedding an unction over the whole character.
When a sick man shall have partaken of food and of drink, what remains for him to do but to repose, and in the quiet of con- templation to recover himself after the toils of busy life? (Cant. xviii. 5, 6).
Proximate Preparation: Recollection, Introversion, Devotion
Though what St Bernard says explicitly on this point is little in comparison with what we have heard from SS Augustine and Gregory, still it is enough to show that he is in agreement with them, and with all contemplatives, that the first stage in rising to con- templation is 'recollection*, the act whereby the soul c recollects it- self, gathering itself to itself (se in se colligens; c St Gregory, above, p. 69), and detaches itself from human affairs, in order to con- template God' (de Consid. v. 4). It spurns the use of things and of the senses, so far as human frailty permits, in order to soar up to contemplation (ibid. 3).
Words cited below (pp. 115-116) show that for Bernard, as for Augustine and Gregory, a condition for contemplation is the banishment from the mind of all phantasmata of corporeal images and of all sense perceptions.
The process of 'introversion' is indicated as follows:
Let us seek the understanding of the invisible things of God by
IOO WESTERN MYSTICISM
those things that are made; but if the soul sees them to be under- stood in other creatures, she must needs see them far more fully and understand them much more delicately in the creature made in the image of God, that is in herself (Serm. de dw. ix. 52).
We have seen that for Augustine the effort to attain to contem- plation was an intellectual search, wherein the mind mounted up through the successive grades of things subject to change, until it reached Unchangeable Being; and that for St Gregory, too, it was a psychological process. For Bernard the method of rising to con- templation was simply piety, devotion, and prayer, as appears in many places.
Often we approach the altar and begin to pray with a heart luke- warm and dry. But if we steadily persist, grace comes suddenly in a flood upon us, our breast grows full of increase, a wave of piety fills our inward heart; and if we press on, the milk of sweetness con- ceived in us will spread over us in fruitful flood. The Bridegroom then speaks thus: 'Thou hast, O my Spouse, that which thou prayest for [i.e. the mystic Mss] 3 (Cant. ix. 7).
You if you shall enter into the house of prayer in solitude and collectedness of spirit, if your mind be thoughtful and free of care, if standing in the presence of God before some altar, you touch, as it were, the portal of heaven with the hand of holy aspiration and longing; if, having been brought among the choirs of the saints by the fervour of your devotion, you deplore before them your troubles and miseries, you plead your necessities with frequent sighs and groans too deep for utterance, and entreat their compassion; if, I say, you act thus, I have full confidence in Him Who said: c Ask, and ye shall receive', and I believe that if you persevere in knocking, you shall not go away empty (ibid. xlix. 3).
The grace of contemplation is granted only in response to a long- ing and importunate desire: Nevertheless He will not present Him- self, even in passing, to every soul; but to that soul only which is shown, by great devotion, vehement desire, and tender affection, to be His Bride, and to be worthy that the Word in all His beauty should visit her as a Bridegroom (ibid, xxxii. 3).
B. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PASSAGE
At this point in the presentation of the teaching of SS Augustine and Gregory, before passing on to the detailed examination of their accounts of the Act of Contemplation itself, were intercalated auto- biographical passages, wherein they describe their own highest personal experiences in contemplation. St Bernard similarly pro- vides us with a long passage of singular eloquence and beauty, in which he sets himself to describe his own experience. It is one of the most remarkable attempts to picture the mystical experience in the
ST BERNARD IOI
whole literature of mysticism. It dates from the closing years of his life.
But now bear with my foolishness for a little. I wish to tell you, as I have promised, how such events have taken place in me. It is indeed a matter of no importance. But I put myself forward only that I may be of service to you, and if you derive any benefit, I am consoled for my egotism; if not, I shall have displayed my foolish- ness. I confess, then, though I say it in my foolishness, that the Word has visited me, and even very often. But although He has frequently entered into my soul, I have never at any time been sensible of the precise moment of His coining. I have felt that He was present; I remember that He has been with me; I have sometimes been able even to have a presentiment that He would come; but never to feel His coming or His departure. For whence He came to enter my soul, or whither He went on quitting it, by what means He has made entrance or departure, I confess that I know not even to this day. ... It is not by the eyes that He enters, for He is without colour; nor by the ears, for His coming is without sound; nor by the nostrils, for it is not with the air but with the mind that He is blended; nor again does He enter by the mouth, not being of a nature to be eaten or drunk; nor lastly is He capable of being traced by the touch, for He is intangible.
You will ask, then, how, since the ways of His access are thus in- capable of being traced, I could know that He was present? But He is living and full of energy, and as soon as He has entered into me He has quickened my sleeping soul, has aroused and softened and goaded my heart, which was in a state of torpor and hard as a stone. He has begun to pluck up and destroy, to plant and to build, to water the dry places, to illuminate the gloomy spots, to throw open those which were shut close, to inflame with warmth those which were cold, as also to straighten its crooked paths and make its rough places smooth, so that my soul might bless the Lord and all that is within me praise His Holy Name. Thus, then, the Bridegroom- Word, though He has several times entered into me, has never made His coming apparent to my sight, hearing, or touch. It was not by His motions that He was recognized by me, nor could I tell by any of my senses that He had penetrated to the depths of my being. It was, as I have already said, only by the movement of my heart that I was enabled to recognize His presence, and to know the might of His power by the sudden departure of vices and the strong restraint put upon all carnal affections. From the discovery and conviction of my secret faults I have had good reason to admire the depths of His wisdom; His goodness and kindness have become known in the amendment, whatever it may amount to, of my life; while in the reformation and renewal of the spirit of my mind, that is, of my inward man, I have perceived in some degree the loveliness of His beauty, and have been filled with amazement at the multitude of His greatness, as I meditated upon all these things.
IO2 WESTERN MYSTICISM
But when the Word withdrew Himself, all these spiritual powers and faculties began to droop and languish, as if the fire had been withdrawn from a bubbling pot; and this is to me the sign of His departure. Then my soul is necessarily sad and depressed until He shall return and my heart grow warm within me, as it is wont, which indeed is the indication to me that He has come back again.
After having, then, such an experience of the Word, what wonder that I should adopt for my own the language of the Bride, who recalls Him when He has departed, since I am influenced by a de- sire, not indeed as powerful, but at least similar to hers. As long as I live that utterance shall be in my mind^ and I will employ, for the recalling of the Word, that word of recall which I find here in the word 'Return 5 . And as often as He shall leave me, so often shall He be called back by my voice; nor will I cease to send my cries, as it were, after Him as He departs, expressing the ardent desire of my heart that He should return, that He should restore to rne the joy of His salvation, restore to me Himself. I confess to you, my sons, that I take pleasure in nothing else in the meantime, until He is present Who is alone pleasing to me (Cant. Ixxiv. 5, 6, 7, compressed).