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Frenchman had founded in order to defend the old harsh monastic spirit against the deterioration of Cluny, and then as the youthful Abbot of a new foundation in Claraval (Clairvaux) for this young heroism spread like wildfire Bernard transformed the knightly in- tention of doing battle for every just cause into spiritual purposive- ness. The conquest of the world, which he practised and proclaimed, embraced manifold forms of living at the same time. It meant re- nouncing the world in order to conquer and rule that world for God's sake. It was humanistic in the sense that it led a quiet spiritual life, and it was political in so far as it was strongly determined to bring into the here and now the perfection of the world beyond.
The simple root of this manifold creative activity was a personality which made itself selfless in order to be free for the obedience of service to higher super-personal ends. The true monk was to practice the strictest self-discipline in food, drink and sleep; to achieve the most rigid concentration of his energies on the task of the moment, whether that were a learned text, a political communication, a chore in the field, or dishwashing in the kitchen; to control the senses perfectly, being not even allowed the sight of the cold Church entered at dawn, and need- ing none because the images which issued from within his soul were so much more fascinating; to draw away from the surrounding world to such an extent that he would not notice the surface of the water, though he were to ride all day along the Lake of Geneva; to study of the Bible so painstakingly that he could quote freely innumerable passages; and finally to surrender to the inner voice amidst the peace of the woodland. These traits of the true monk were associated marvellously with those of the active knight, the conqueror, the resister of princes in the Empire and the Church. Because Bernard was all this and stood apart from the world, he could summon up enormous energy to attack that world. Therefore he never exchanged his white habit for the pallium or the purple, and so retained the freedom of a prophet not chained to hierarchical tasks. Perhaps he also realized that every kind of tie to those in power could prove dangerous to his mystical servitude for Christ's sake, who was to him the King who rules the world and ordains what happens therein. In his deepest being this devout religious felt subservient only to the wholly personal law of the religious superman. Whenever he indulges in a rare mo-
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