1 A Description of Clairvaux William of St Thierry ca 1143 At the first glance as you entered Clairvaux by descending the hill you could see that it was a temple of God and the still silent valley bespoke in the modest simplicity of its buildings the unfeigned humility of Christ s poor Moreover in this valley full of men where no one was permitted to be idle where one and all were occupied with their allotted tasks a silence deep as that of night prevailed The sounds of labor or the chants of the brethren in the choral service were the only exceptions The orderliness of this silence and the report that went forth concerning it struck such a reverence even into secular persons that they dreaded breaking it I will not say by idle or wicked conversation but even by proper remarks The solitude also of the place between dense forests in a narrow gorge of neighboring hills in a certain sense recalled the cave of our father St Benedict so that while they strove to imitate his life they also had some similarity to him in their habitation and loneliness Although the monastery is situated in a valley it has its foundations on the holy hills whose gates the Lord loves more than all the dwellings of Jacob Glorious things are spoken of it because the glorious and wonderful God therein works great marvels There the insane recover their reason and although their outward man is worn away inwardly they are born again There the proud are humbled the rich are made poor and the poor have the Gospel preached to them and the darkness of sinners is changed into light A large multitude of blessed poor from the ends of the earth have there assembled yet have they one heart and one mind justly therefore do all who dwell there rejoice with no empty joy They have the certain hope of perennial joy of their ascension heavenward already commenced In Clairvaux they have found Jacob s ladder with angels upon it some descending who so provide for their bodies that they faint not on the way others ascending who so rule their souls that their bodies hereafter may be glorified with them For my part the more attentively I watch them day by day the more do I believe that they are perfect followers of Christ in all things When they pray and speak to God in spirit and in truth by their friendly and quiet speech to Him as well as by their humbleness of demeanor they are plainly seen to be God s companions and friends When on the other hand they openly praise God with psalms how pure and fervent are their minds is shown by their posture of body in holy fear and reverence while by their careful pronunciation and modulation of the psalms is shown how sweet to their lips are the words of God sweeter than honey to their mouths As I watch them therefore singing without fatigue from before midnight to the dawn of day with only a brief interval they appear a little less than the angels but much more than men As regards their manual labor so patiently and placidly with such quiet countenances in such sweet and holy order do they perform all things that although they exercise themselves at many works they never seem moved or burdened in anything whatever the labor may be Whence it is 2 manifest that that Holy Spirit works in them who disposes of all things with sweetness in whom they are refreshed so that they rest even in their toil Many of them I hear are bishops and earls and many illustrious through their birth or knowledge but now by God s grace all distinction of persons being dead among them the greater anyone thought himself in the world the more in this flock does he regard himself as less than the least I see them in the garden with hoes in the meadows with forks or rakes in the fields with scythes in the forest with axes To judge from their outward appearance their tools their bad and disordered clothes they appear a race of fools without speech or sense But a true thought in my mind tells me that their life in Christ is hidden in the heavens Among them I see Godfrey of Peronne Raynald of Picardy William of St Omer Walter de Lisle all of whom I knew formerly in the old man whereof I now see no trace by God s favor I knew them proud and puffed up I see them walking humbly under the merciful hand of God Source Frederic Austin Ogg ed A Source Book of Mediaeval History Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance New York 1907 258 60 Scanned and modernized by Jerome S Arkenberg California State Fullerton This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book Paul Halsall August 1998
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