Two Abbots in Politics
Wala of Corbie and Bernard of Clairvaux
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11005129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Henry Mayr-Harting, Henry Mayr‐Harting (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Pages | 217-237 |
| Publication date | 1990-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0080-4401 • E-ISSN: 1474-0648 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3679169 |
| OpenAlex | W2117125034 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
ABBOTS in politics were surely a medieval commonplace, one might be tempted to say: what have these two egregious examples, Wala of Corbie (826–34, ob. 836) and Bernard of Clairvaux (1115–53), to say to us which countless others could not also say? If my two were not unique, however, they were comparative rarities, in that they became involved in politics (if that is the right word), not because of their feudal obligations, nor because they sought to propagate monastic reform on the basis of the observance of their own monastery, nor again because they associated the glory of their own house with a particular cause or royal line, but avowedly for the sake of moral principle, incurring enmities in the process, and, cloistered monks as they were, acting to some extent against the interests and wishes of their own flocks. The monk-bishop was a common enough figure, and the greatest men of this type, pre-eminently Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory the Great, have given us profound thoughts about how contemplation could and should be kept alive amidst the cares of the active and pastoral life. But neither Wala nor Bernard became a bishop, and paradoxically the latter's widespread and non-institutionalised influence might have been diminished had he done so. As one of Bernard's biographers felicitously but ingenuously put it in recounting that the saint had actually refused many bishoprics, ‘from under the bushel of his humility he gave a greater light to the church than others raised to the chandeliers’
Abbé · Ancient history · Art history · Contemplation · Feudalism · Glory · Humility · Political science · Politics · Procession · Theology · Classics · History · Law · Medieval and Early Modern Justice · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2019 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |