Geoffrey of Clairvaux against the pope and the king of France; and under his rule Becket found a refuge at Pontigny, although regard for the interests of his order compelled Gilbert to convey to the archbishop the threats of Henry II against the Cistercians (Materials for Hist. of Becket (Rolls Ser.), iii. 397). In May 1167 he made an agreement with the chapter of Autun, and probably died 17 Oct. of that year, although some fix his death in 1168. All writers celebrate the learning and piety to which he owed his cognomen, but seem to confuse him with other Gilberts. Bale and Pits ascribe to him various works, of which, with one or two exceptions, nothing seems known. Among them there are ‘Commentaries on the Psalms,’ the opening words of which correspond with Bodl. MS. Auct. D. 4. 6; a treatise styled ‘Distinctiones Theologicæ’ is also assigned to Gilbert in Bodl. MSS. 29 and 45. Mabillon prints a sermon which he ascribes to Gilbert in his edition of S. Bernard's works, ii. 745. There are also three letters from Gilbert to Louis VII in Duchesne's ‘Historiæ Francorum Scriptores,’ iv. 670, 679, 744; these, however, are all short, and contain nothing to justify the high praise bestowed on their author for his literary ability. Henrique includes Gilbert among the saints of the Cistercian order. Bale and Pits wrongly give his date as 1280, and say that he had studied at Paris and Toulouse.
[Bale, p. 337; Pits, p. 361; Tanner, p. 317, under ‘Gilbert the Cistercian;’ Hist. Lit. de la France, xiii. 381–5; Gallia Christiana, iv. 987; Menologium Cisterciense Oct. 17.]
GILBERT of Hoyland (d. 1172), theological writer, has been the subject of much confusion with other Gilberts, and especially with his contemporary Gilbert the Great or the Theologian (d. 1167?) [q. v.], who was likewise an Englishman and a Cistercian. Gilbert of Hoyland was a disciple and friend of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, by whom he was admitted to the Cistercian order; in 1163 he became abbot of Swineshead in Holland in Lincolnshire, of which district he was probably a native. The supposition of some writers that he was a Scotsman, and of Mabillon that he was Irish, seems to have no further foundation than an idea that Hoyland meant Holy Island. According to the chronicle of Clairvaux, Gilbert died at the monastery of Rivour in the diocese of Troyes in 1172 (Migne, clxxxv. 1248). His name day is given as 25 May (Menologium Cisterciense, p. 172). We know nothing further as to his life, but in his thirteenth sermon he condemns the rival popes Victor and Alexander, though without mentioning any names; and in the forty-first he refers to Ælred, abbot of Rievaulx [see Ethelred, 1109?–1166], as lately dead, which fixes the date of this discourse at 1166. His forty-eight sermons on the Cantica Canticorum, chapters 4–5, are in continuation and imitation of those of St. Bernard, than whom, says Mabillon, he has scarcely less elevation. These sermons are printed in Mabillon's edition of St. Bernard's ‘Works,’ vol. ii., and in Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ clxxxiv., together with seven ‘Tractatus Ascetici’ in the form of epistles, four epistles and a sermon ‘De Semine verbi Dei.’ The sermons were printed separately at Florence 1485, Strasburg 1487, and Antwerp 1576. Bale and Pits also assign to Gilbert of Hoyland commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul, the Psalms, St. Matthew (Gilbertus Abbas in Bodl. MS. 87), and the Apocalypse; ‘Sententiæ Theologicæ; De Statu Animæ;’ ‘De Casu Diaboli.’ These are, however, of doubtful authority. According to Oudin (ii. 1484) the commentaries should be assigned to Gilbert of Poitiers. The ascription to Gilbert of Hoyland of a share in the life of St. Bernard is also incorrect.
[Histoire Littéraire de la France, xiii. 461–9; Hardy's Catalogue of British History, ii. 551; Mabillon's Prefaces to vols. iv. and v. of St. Bernard's Works; Bale, p. 246; Pits, p. 269; Tanner, p. 317; Fabricius, p. 55.]
GILBERT of Sempringham (1083?–1189), founder of the order that bears his name, was born about 1083 (Vita ap. Acta Sanct. p. 573, where, however, ‘sex’ may be a corruption of ‘senex;’ cf. Capgrave, fol. 157b2 and Digby MS. 36, fol. 48a2, 46b1). His father, Jocelin, was a wealthy Norman knight, his mother an Englishwoman of lower rank (Digby MS. 7 a; but cf. Dugdale, p. v). The family estates were in or near Lincolnshire (Digby MS.) Of an ungainly figure, and showing no promise of military vigour, Gilbert, as he himself told his followers, was treated with contempt at home. Then he was set to literature, at which after a time he worked vigorously, and went to France. Here he ultimately became a teacher (ib. fol. 8), and acquired a great reputation for learning. While still a young man he returned home, and began to instruct the boys and girls of his own neighbourhood (ib.). His father gave him the churches of Sempringham and ‘Tirington;’ and though there was some opposition to Jocelin's right of appointment, Gilbert retained both livings (ib.)
His labours now attracted the notice of Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln (d. 10 June 1123), in whose house he ministered as a
