Editing Bernard of Clairvaux (section)

== Crusade preaching ==

===Second Crusade (1146–1149)===
[[File:Saint-Bernard prêchant la 2e croisade, à Vézelay, en 1146.jpg|thumb|Saint Bernard preaching the second crusade in [[Vézelay]] in 1146]]
News came at this time from the [[Holy Land]] that alarmed [[Christendom]]. Christians had been defeated at the [[Siege of Edessa (1144)|Siege of Edessa]] and most of the county had fallen into the hands of the [[Seljuk Turks]].{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1991|p=48}} The [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] and the other [[Crusader states]] were threatened with similar disaster. Deputations of the bishops of [[Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia|Armenia]] solicited aid from the pope, and the King of France also sent ambassadors. In 1144 Eugene III commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade and granted the same [[indulgence]]s for it which [[Pope Urban II]] had accorded to the [[First Crusade]]<!--what were they? 1st Crusade article doesn't mention-->.{{sfn|Durant|1950|p=594}}

There was at first virtually no popular enthusiasm for the crusade as there had been in 1095. Bernard found it expedient to dwell upon taking the cross as a potent means of gaining absolution for sin and attaining grace. On 31 March, with King [[Louis VII of France]] present, he preached to an enormous crowd in a field at [[Vézelay]], making "the speech of his life".{{sfn|Norwich|2012|p=}} When he had finished, many of his listeners enlisted; they supposedly ran out of the cloth used to make crosses for the new recruits.{{sfn|Durant|1950|p=594}}{{sfn|Norwich|2012|p=}}

Unlike the First Crusade, the new venture attracted royalty, such as the French queen [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]] and scores of high aristocrats and bishops. But an even greater show of support came from the common people. Bernard wrote Pope Eugene a few days afterwards, "Cities and castles are now empty. There is not left one man to seven women, and everywhere there are widows to still-living husbands."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Durant |first1=Will |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=btIOAQAAIAAJ&q=%22not+left+one+man+to+seven+women%22 |title=The age of Faith; a history of medieval civilization (Christian, Islamic, and Judaic) from Constantine to Dante, A.D. 325-1300 |last2=Durant |first2=Ariel |date=1935 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |series=The Story of Civilization |pages=594 |language=en}}</ref>

Bernard then passed into Germany, with reported miracles contributing to the success of his mission. King [[Conrad III of Germany]] and his nephew [[Frederick Barbarossa]], received the cross from the hand of Bernard.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1991|p=48}} Pope Eugenius came in person to France to encourage the enterprise. As in the First Crusade, the preaching led to attacks on [[Jews]]; a fanatical French monk named [[Radulf the Cistercian|Radulf]] was apparently inspiring massacres of Jews in the Rhineland, [[Cologne]], [[Mainz]], [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], and [[Speyer]], with Radulf claiming Jews were not contributing financially to the rescue of the Holy Land. The [[archbishop of Cologne]] and the [[archbishop of Mainz]] were vehemently opposed to these attacks and asked Bernard to denounce them. This he did, but when the campaign continued, Bernard travelled from Flanders to Germany to deal with the problems in person. He then found Radulf in Mainz and was able to silence him, returning him to his monastery.{{sfn|Durant|1950|p=391}}

The last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the Second Crusade he had preached, and the entire responsibility which was thrown upon him. Bernard sent an apology to the Pope and it is inserted in the second part of his ''"Book of Considerations".'' There he explains how the sins of the crusaders were the cause of their misfortune and failures.

=== Wendish Crusade (1147) ===
Bernard did not actually preach the [[Wendish Crusade]], but he did write a letter that advocated subduing this group of Western Slavs so that they should not be an obstacle to the Second Crusade. He was for battling them "until such a time as, by God's help, they shall either be converted or deleted".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Christiansen|first=Eric|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38197435|title=The northern Crusades|date=1997|publisher=Penguin|isbn=0-14-026653-4|edition=2nd, new|location=London, England|pages=53|oclc=38197435}}</ref> A decree issued in Frankfurt stated that the letter should be proclaimed widely and read aloud, so that "the letter functioned as a sermon."<ref>Beverly Kienzle (2001): Bernard of Clairvaux, the 1143/44 Sermons and the 1145 Preaching Mission: From the Domestic to the Lord’s Vineyard. In: ''Cistercians, Heresy and Crusade in Occitania, 1145–1229: Preaching in the Lord’s Vineyard''. Boydell & Brewer, pp. 81-82.</ref>