Chapter XVII

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[471] Migne 153, col. 601-631.

[472] A bibliography of what has been written on Bernard would make a volume. His own writings and the _Vitae_ and _Acta_ (as edited by Mabillon) are printed in Migne, tomes 182-185. The _Vie de Saint Bernard_, by the abbé Vacandard, in two volumes, is to be recommended (2nd ed., Paris, 1897).

[473] _Vita prima_, iii. cap. 1 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 185). This _Vita_ was written by contemporaries of the saint who knew him intimately. But one must be on one’s guard as to these apparently close descriptions of the saints in their _vitae_; for they are commonly conventionalized. This description of Bernard, excepting perhaps the colour of his hair, would have fitted Francis of Assisi.

[474] _Vita prima_, iii. 3. Bernard himself said that his aim in preaching was not so much to expound the words (of Scripture) as to move his hearers’ hearts (_Sermo xvi. in Cantica canticorum_). That his preaching was resistless is universally attested.

[475] See, _e.g._, Vacandard, _o.c._ chap. i.

[476] _Post_,