Earlier versions of this paper were first presented at the Cistercian Studies Conferences of the 32nd and 33rd International Congresses on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Mich., May 1997 and May 1998.

1. Newman, Barbara, From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 26, 138, 144;Google ScholarBynum, Carolyn Walker, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 135–54;Google ScholarMcNamara, Jo Ann, “The Herrenfrage: The Restructuring of the Gender System, 1050–1150,” in Lees, Clare A., ed., Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, Medieval Cultures 7 (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1994), 3–29;Google ScholarWiethaus, Ulrike, “Christian Piety and the Legacy of Medieval Masculinity,” in Boyd, Stephen B., Longwood, W. Merle, and Muesse, Mark W., eds., Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 48–61;Google ScholarDamrosch, David, “Non Alia Sed Aliter: The Hermeneutics of Gender in Bernard of Clairvaux,” in Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate and Szell, Timea, eds., Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991), 181–95;Google ScholarJantzen, Grace M., Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 130–38;Google ScholarKereszty, Roch, “‘Bride’ and ‘Mother’ in the Super Cantica of St. Bernard: An Ecclesiology for our time?” Communio 20 (1993): 415–36.Google Scholar

2. The critical edition of Bernard's writings used in this research is that of Jean Leclercq and Henri Rochais, Sancti Bernardi Opera, 8 volumes (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957–1977), hereafter cited as SBOp.Google ScholarEnglish translation of the Sermons on the Song of Songs is available in Bernard of Clairvaux on the Song of Songs, 4 vols., trans. Walsh, Kilian and Edmonds, Irene, Cistercian Fathers 4, 7, 31, 40 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1971–1980), hereafter cited as Song.Google Scholar

3. In something akin to the theatrical tradition of the musical “Victor, Victoria,” we might say that the figure of the Bride represents for Bernard and his monks a man striving to be a woman striving to be a man!Google Scholar

4. Bynum, , Jesus as Mother, 110–69.Google Scholar

5. Bynum, Carolyn Walker, “‘… And Woman His Humanity’: Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages,” in Bynum, Caroline Walker, Harrell, Stevan, and Richman, Paula, eds., Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols (Boston: Beacon, 1986), 269;Google ScholarMcNamara, , “The Herrenfrage,” 20.Google Scholar

6. Bernard insists, for instance, in a letter to the novice Hugh, that receptivity to the “mothering” of Jesus, and by implication, the “mothering” of the abbot, requires the renunciation of earthly mothers. “If your mother should lie prostrate at the door,” he writes, “if she should bare her breasts, the breasts that gave you suck…yet with dry eyes fixed upon the cross go ahead and tread over your prostrate mother and father.” Ep. 322.1–2, SBOp 8:256–57,Google Scholartrans. James, Bruno Scott, The Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux (Burns Oates, 1953, reprint Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1998), 449: “Si prostratus…iaceat in limine pater, si nudato sinu, quibus te lactavit, ubera mater ostendat…per calcatum transi patrem, per calcatam perge matrem, et siccis oculis ad vexillum crucis evola.” I am aware that this may signify nothing more than rejection of “the world” for the cloister, and that in this passage both earthly mother and father are rejected. However, I do not think it is appropriate to ignore entirely the gender implications of the decision to make a lifetime commitment to an exclusively male community.Google Scholar

7. As Marsha Dutton noted in response to an early version of this paper presented at the 1997 Cistercian Studies Conference at the International Medieval Studies Congress in Kalamazoo, Mich., May 1997, we can never underestimate the alterity or otherness of the medievals, and we cannot easily or unthinkingly attach contemporary gender assumptions to the language of the medievals.Google Scholar

8. We might thus excuse Bernard's choice of a feminine metaphor in much the same way Jean Leclercq defended Bernard against “anti-feminism,” by claiming that “everything [Bernard] had to say about the differences between man and woman was based, as was almost everything else, on scriptural texts and their resonances.”Google ScholarLeclercq, , Women and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian Studies 104 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1989), 85.Google Scholar

9. McGinn, Bernard, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, vol. 1: The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century (New York: Crossroad, 1991), 259–62.Google Scholar

10. Bynum, Carolyn Walker, “Introduction: The Complexity of Symbols,” in Gender and Religion, 2;Google ScholarWilliams, Michael A., “Uses of Gender Imagery in Ancient Gnostic Texts,” in Gender and Religion, 196–227, particularly 211–21.Google Scholar

11. Sermones super Cantica Canticorum 7.2 (hereafter SC), SBOp 1: 31–32, Song 1:38–39.Google Scholar

12. Bynum, , Jesus as Mother, 148, claims that the Cistercians consistently label “gentleness, compassion, tenderness, emotionality and love, nurturing and security” as feminine. On the negative associations linked with feminine affect, see below. For the positive, see Leclercq, Women and Saint Bernard, 90–91.Google Scholar

13. SC 1.1–3;Google ScholarSBOp 1:3–4;Google ScholarSong 1:1–2.Google Scholar

14. Vogt, Kari, “‘Becoming Male’: A Gnostic and Early Christian Metaphor,” in Børresen, Kari Elisabeth, The Image of God: Gender Models in Judaeo-Christian Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 171.Google Scholar

15. A literature search can readily produce a lengthy bibliography dealing with the theme. See, for instance Cloke, Gillian, This Female Man of God: Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age, AD 350–450 (London: Routledge, 1995);CrossRefGoogle ScholarNewman, , From Virile Woman to WomanChrist;Google ScholarJantzen, , Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism, 43–58;Google ScholarMiles, Margaret, Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West (Boston: Beacon, 1989);Google ScholarBynum, , Jesus as Mother, 135–54;Google ScholarMcNamara, Jo Ann, “Sexual Equality and the Cult of Virginity in Early Christian Thought,” Feminist Studies 3 (1976): 145–58;CrossRefGoogle ScholarYarbrough, Anne, “Christianization in the Fourth Century: The Example of Roman Women,” Church History 45 (1976): 149–65;CrossRefGoogle ScholarClark, Elizabeth A., “Ascetic Renunciation and Feminine Advancement: A Paradox of Late Ancient Christianization,” Anglican Theological Review 63 (1981): 240–57;Google Scholaridem, “Ideology, History, and the Construction of ‘Woman’ in Late Ancient Christianity,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 2 (1994): 155–84;Google ScholarMeeks, Wayne A., “The Image of the Androgyne: Some uses of a Symbol in Earliest Christianity,” History of Religions 13 (1974): 165–208;CrossRefGoogle ScholarWard, Benedicta, , S.L.G., “Apophthegmata Matrum,” Studia Patristica 16 (1985): 63–66;Google ScholarBurrus, Virginia, “‘Equipped for Victory’: Ambrose and the Gendering of Orthodoxy,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 4 (1996): 461–75;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMeyer, Marvin W., “Making Mary Male: The Categories of ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in the Gospel of Thomas,” New Testament Studies 31 (1985): 554–70;CrossRefGoogle ScholarAlbrecht, Ruth, “Women in the Time of the Church Fathers,” Theology Digest 36 (1989): 3–7;Google ScholarCastelli, Elizabeth, “‘I Will Make Mary Male’: Pieties of the Body and Gender Transformation of Christian Women in Late Antiquity,” in Epstein, Julia and Straub, Kristina, eds., Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity (London: Routledge, 1991), 29–49.Google Scholar

16. Quoted in Miles, Carnal Knowing, 53.Google Scholar

17. Vogt, Kari, “‘Becoming Male,’” 176.Google Scholar For another example, see Patrum, Apothegmata, Sarra 4,9, in Patrologia graeca, ed. Migne, J.-P. (1857–1866; hereafter PG), 65: 420. The latter is quoted in Vogt, “ ‘Becoming Male,’ ” 181.Google Scholar

18. Vogt, , “‘Becoming Male,’” 175–76, 180–81;Google ScholarJantzen, , Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism, 49–58.Google ScholarThe text of Perpetua and Felicitas is available in The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, ed. Musurillo, Herbert R. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972), 106–31.Google Scholar For treatments of Perpetua and Felicitas, see Dronke, Peter, Women Writers of the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 1–35;Google ScholarPetroff, Elizabeth Alvilda, Medieval Women's Visionary Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 60–69.Google ScholarGerontius's Life of Melania is available in Clark, Elizabeth A., trans, and ed., The Life of Melania the Younger, Studies in Women and Religion 14 (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1984).Google ScholarOn the virilewoman theme, see especially Gerontius, Life, chaps. 12,39; English trans. Clark, Life, 35, 53–54.Google ScholarSyncletica's Life is translated in Vivian, Tim, Journeying into God: Seven Early Monastic Lives (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 37–52.Google Scholar

19. Vogt, , “‘Becoming Male,’” 177–79;Google ScholarKari Elisabeth Børresen, “God's Image, Man's image? Patristic Interpretation of Gen. 1: 27 and 1 Cor. 11:17,” in Børresen, Image of God, 196.Google Scholar

20. Vogt, , “‘Becoming Male,’” 182.Google Scholar

21. Bernard's role as the “last of the Fathers” has been much commented on. It is suggestive of Bernard's fundamental theological conservatism, not only in his reluctance to embrace the new forms of philosophical reasoning that were developing in his own time, but in his characteristic dependence on and intimate knowledge of his patristic forbears. It has been said that Bernard represents the culmination of the patristic theological legacy. What is new in his thought is most often discovered in the creative synthesis, or the imaginative presentation, and not in the fundamental theological components of his thought. Thomas Merton used the phrase as the title of a book;Google ScholarMerton, Thomas, The Last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard ofClairvaux and the Encyclical Letter, Doctor Mellifluus (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1954). The phrase appears in Mabillon's general preface to the Patrologia Latina volume on Bernard: Mabillon, Bernardi opera, Praefatio generalis no. 23, in Patrologia latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (1844–65; hereafter PL), 182:26;Google Scholarsee also Gilson, Etienne, The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard (London: Sheed and Ward, 1940: reprint Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1990), 23–32;Google ScholarWaddell, Chrysogonus, introduction to Bernard of Clairvaux, Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cistercian Fathers 18a (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1993), xvi–xviii.Google Scholar

22. My distinction between the “feminine-negative” and “feminine-positive” in Bernard's language is not unlike the claim of Ulrike Wiethaus that Bernard's feminine imagery continues to reflect the Western psychic split between virgin and whore, although I choose to use the more neutral terms because I do not wish to sexualize the language to the degree found in Wiethaus. See “Christian Piety,” 51, 54–55. Jean Leclercq has also noted that while Bernard often describes women who bear qualities that counter the failings for which women are often reproached, his language occasionally reflects the stereotypes of his day. Leclercq, Women and St. Bernard, passim.Google Scholar

23. SC 71.4; SBOp 2:216, line 23 (hereafter cited as 216.23); Song 4:51.Google Scholar

24. SC 13.5; SBOp 1:71.21–22; Song 1:91.Google Scholar

25. Ep. 114.2; SBOp 7:292.12; James, Letters, 178: “Quando enim tu, femina et iuvencula, formosa et ingenua, sic fragilem et sexum vinceres et aetatem … ”Google Scholar

26. SC 54.2; SBOp 2:103.29–104.2; Song 3:70: “non solum magnis et spiritualibus viris, sed et aliquibus de populo, etiam et nonnullis mulieribus.” See also SC 13.4; SBOp 1:70,27–71, 6; Song 1:90.Google Scholar

27. Ep. 523, SBOp 8:486.13;Google ScholarEng. trans. Aelred of Rievaulx, The Mirror of Charity, trans. Connor, Elizabeth, O.C.S.O., Cistercian Fathers 17 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1990), 69.Google Scholar

28. SC 73.4;Google ScholarSBOp 2:235.17–21;Google ScholarSong 4: 78.Google Scholar

29. SC 52.1;Google ScholarSBOp 2:90.9;Google ScholarSong 3: 49: “Has enim filias ierusalem dicit, quia, etsi delicatae et molles, et quasi adhuc femineis affectibus et actibus infirmae … ”Google Scholar

30. De consideratione ad eugenium papam 2.20 (hereafter Csi), SBOp 3:428.24;Google ScholarEng. trans. Five Books on Consideration: Advice to a Pope, trans. Anderson, John D. and Kennan, Elizabeth T., Cistercian Fathers 37 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1976), 75.Google Scholar

31. See, for instance, ep. 38.2; SBOp 7:96–97, James, Letters, 72–73;Google Scholar and Vita Sancti Malachiae (hereafter V Mal) 19, SBOp 3:330, in The Life and Death of Saint Malachy the Irishman, trans. Meyer, Robert T., Cistercian Fathers 10 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1978), 38.Google Scholar

32. Csi 2.20; SBOp 3:428; Consideration, 75: “oculus … suffusus fluxa quadam et muliebri mollitie animi rectum non videt.”Google Scholar

33. Sermo in purificatione B.V.M. 4.1 (hereafter Pur), SBOp 4:337; ep. 385.3, SBOp 8:353, James, Letters, 492. See also Pur 1.3, SBOp 4:336.Google Scholar

34. SC 1:2; SBOp 1:3;Google ScholarSong 1: 2: “ vanus … amor mundi, et superfluus sui.”Google Scholar

35. Apologia ad Guillelmum abbatem 17 (hereafter Apo), SBOp 3:96.1–2;Google ScholarEng. trans. The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises I, trans. Casey, Michael, O.C.S.O., ed. Pennington, M. Basil, O.C.S.O., Cistercian Fathers 1 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1970), 53.Google Scholar

36. SC 38.4; SBOp 2:16.17–22;Google ScholarSong 2: 189: “Ego enim puto mulierum nomine hoc loco appellatas animas carnales ac saeculares, nihil in se virile habentes, nihil forte aut constans in suis actibus demonstrantes, sed totum remissum, totum femineum et molle, quod vivunt and quod agunt.”Google Scholar

37. SC 66.3; SBOp 2:180.1–2,Google ScholarSong 3: 193: “nonne reples eam concubinariis, incestuosis, seminifluis, mollibus, masculorum concubitoribus, et omni denique genere immundorum?” It is likely that it is the passive or receptive role in homosexual behavior that is being condemned here.Google Scholar

38. SC 39.7, SBOp 2:22.15,Google ScholarSong 2: 196;Google ScholarApo 22, SBOp 3:99.20, Treatises I, 58; Apo 26, SBOp 3:102.23, Treatises I, 62; Csi 2.13, SBOp 3:420.22–23, Consideration, 62; epp. 1.11, 2.11–12, 5.2, SBOp 7:9.13,22.5–7, 29.1, James, Letters, 8,17–18; Liber ad milites templi 2.3 (hereafter Tpl), SBOp 3:216,Google ScholarThe Works of Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises III, trans. Greenia, Congrad, O.C.S.O., Cistercian Fathers 19 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1977), 132–33.Google Scholar

39. Ep. 113.3; SBOp 7:289; James, Letters, 175: “Filiae Babylonis … induuntur purpua et bysso, et subinde conscientia pannosa iacet; fulgent monilibus, moribus sordent.”Google Scholar

40. Ep. 113.1; SBOp 7:288.9–10; James, Letters, 174: “Nam si in viris virtus, rara est avis in terris, quanto magis in femina fragili et nobili?” The passage continues: “Denique mulierem fortem quis inveniet (Prov 31.10)? Multo magis quis fortem et nobilem?”Google Scholar

41. Ep. 2.12 to Fulk, SBOp 7:22.5; James, Letters, 18.Google Scholar

42. Apo 16, Tpl 2.3; SBOp 3:95,216; Treatises 1,52–53, Treatises III, 132–33.Google Scholar

43. Apo 26; SBOp 3:102.23; Treatises I, 62: “Mollia indumenta animi mollitiem indicant.”Google Scholar

44. Leclercq, , Women and St. Bernard, 21, 152.Google Scholar

45. SC 72.7; SBOp 2:230.16;Google ScholarSong 4: 70.Google Scholar

46. For Eve's folly see In transitu sancti Malachiae episcopi 3 (hereafter Mal), SBOp 5: 419.19; Life and Death of Malachy, 99; Ep. 124.3, SBOp 7:307.7, James, Letters, 189. See also SC 69.2, SBOp 2:203.17, Song 3:29; V Mal 6, SBOp 3:314.23, Life and Death of Malachy, 21. For her susceptibility to the senses, see Sermo in die sancto pentecostes 2.3 (hereafter Pent), SBOp 5:167.8–9,Google ScholarEng. trans, in Sermons for the Summer Season, trans. Kienzle, Beverly Mayne, Cistercian Fathers 53 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1991), 76;Google ScholarSC 82.4, SBOp 2:294,Google ScholarSong 4: 174.Google Scholar

47. Sermo in epiphania domini 2.2 (hereafter Epi), SBOp 4:302: “Vobis ergo dicimus, filiae Sion, animae saeculares, debiles delicatae filiae, et non filii, in quibus nihil est fortitudinis, nihil virilis animi: EGREDIMI FILIAE SION. Egredimini de sensu carnis ad intellectum mentis, de servitute carnalis concupiscentiae ad libertatem spiritualis intelligentiae.”

48. SC 44.5; SBOp 2:47; Song 2:229: “Hinc homo iunior filius appellatur, quod natura quodam insensatae lubrico adolescentiae depravata, omnem virilis maturitatis ac sapientiae succum amiserit et, versus in asperum, arente animo, praeter se universos despiciat, factus sine affectione.”

49. SC 41.1; SBOp 2:28–29;Google ScholarSong 2: 204–5.Google Scholar

50. Cloke, , This Female Man of God, 213.Google Scholar

51. Div 71.1; SBOp 6.1:306–7.Google Scholar

52. Sermo in natali sancti Benedicti 6, SBOp 5:6; Sermo in dominica sexta post pentecosten 1, SBOp 5:207; Div 13.4, SBOp 6.1:133; Div 41.8, SBOp 6.1:249; Sermo in nativitate B.V.M. 16, SBOp 5:286; Ep. 71,87.9, SBOp 7:174,229, James, Letters, 103, 133; Mal 5, SBOp 5:420, Life and Death of Malachy 101; Sermo de conversione ad clericos 21, SBOp 4:93; Liber de gratia et libero arbitrio 26 (hereafter Gra), SBOp 3:185,Google ScholarOn Grace and Free Choice, trans. O'Donovan, Daniel, Cistercian Fathers Series 19a (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1988), 83.Google Scholar

53. Mal 1, SBOp 5:417, Life and Death of Malachy, 97: “illecebris carnalibus et oblectamentis saecularibus viriliter abrenuntiasse.”Google Scholar

54. For perseverance and constancy, see SC 38.4, SBOp 2:16, Song 2:189; Pur 3.3, SBOp 4:344; Div 41.1, SBOp 6.1:244; for confident speech, SC 47.8, SBOp 2.66, Song 3: 10;Google Scholarfor tears of true devotion, Epi 3.8, SBOp 4:309.Google Scholar

55. Ep 113.1, SBOp 7:288, James, Letters, 174; Homiliae super missus est in laudibus virginis matris 2.5 (hereafter Miss), SBOp 4:24,Google ScholarEng. trans, in Magnificat: Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Bernard of Clairvaux and Amadeus of Lausanne, trans. Saïd, Marie-Bernard, Cistercian Fathers 18 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1979; reprinted in Waddell, Homilies in Praise, 18; hereafter CF 18);Google ScholarCsi 2.14, SBOp 3:442.6, Five Books on Consideration, 97; SC 45.3, SBOp 2:51.12–13, Song 2:234.Google Scholar

56. Div 41.8, SBOp 6.1:249–50: “Manum tuam misisti ad fortia?”Google Scholar

57. Ep. 363; SBOp 8:314.Google Scholar

58. Ep. 331; SBOp 8:269–70; James, Letters, 323–24. See also ep. 362.2, SBOp 8:310, James 387; Csi 4.12, SBOp 3.457, On Consideration 123, addressed to Pope Eugenius III, and ep. 270.2, SBOp 8:179, James 418.Google Scholar

59. Ep. 377; SBOp 8:340–41; James, Letters, 475–76. Compare with ep. 360, SBOp 8:307, James, Letters, 269.Google Scholar

60. SC 12.9; SBOp 1:66;Google ScholarSong 1: 84–85: “sed qui iuvat multos, et melius facit, et virilius.” See also SC 44.4–8; SBOp 2:46–49; Song 2:227–31, where the prodigal son who has forfeited “the virile energy and wisdom of mature manhood” through debauched living might once more become a man among men (homo in hominem) when undisciplined worldliness is abandoned. Such a one is once again clothed with compassionate tenderness (mansuetudo), and is prepared to exercise that fraternal charity which is a combination of zeal and the perfection of Christ's love in the soul. Note the confluence of feminine tenderness and images of masculinity. Also note that it is the prior perfection of Christ's love in the soul that makes such fraternal charity possible.Google Scholar

61. This ambivalence is vividly portrayed, for instance, in the section just prior to the one under discussion; SC 12.8; SBOp 1:65–66; Song 1:83–84.Google Scholar

62. Sermo de conversione ad clericos 101 (hereafter Div), SBOp 6.1:368. See also epp. 2.1, 2.8, 88.2,143.1–2, 351, 354, 389, 397.1; SBOp 7:12–13,19, 232–33, 342, 8:294–95, 298, 356–57, 373; James, Letters, 10,16,136,212,357,346,379,498, for these themes.Google Scholar

63. Div 10, SBOp 6.1:121–24; 3 Sententia 73, SBOp 6.2:108–12.Google ScholarSee the discussion in Bernardo Olivera, “Aspects of the Love of Neighbor in the Spiritual Doctrine of St Bernard,” Cistercian Studies Quarterly 26 (1991): 116–17.Google Scholar

64. Div 90.3; SBOp 6.1:339.Google Scholar

65. Newman, Martha G., The Boundaries of Charity: Cistercian Culture and Ecclesiastical Reform, 1098–1180 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996), cited at 237.Google Scholar

66. SC 58.1; SBOp 2:127;Google ScholarSong 3: 108.Google Scholar

67. SC 58.2; SBOp 2:128;Google ScholarSong 3: 108–9: “Non itaque suscitatur praeterquam velit, quando fit prius ut velit.”Google Scholar

68. SC 50.4–6; SBOp 2:80–82;Google ScholarSong 3: 32–35. Quote is from SC 50.4: “Sed est affectio quam caro gignit, et est quam ratio regit, et est quam condit sapientia.”Google Scholar

69. SC 49.5; SBOp 2:75–76;Google ScholarSong 3: 25.Google Scholar

70. SC 7.3; SBOp 1:32;Google ScholarSong 1: 39–40: “Amat ardenter, quae ita proprio debriatur amore, ut maiestatem non cogitet.”Google Scholar

71. SC 1.5; SBOp 1:5;Google ScholarSong 1: 3.Google Scholar

72. SC 9.2; SBOp 1:43;Google ScholarSong 1: 54: “sed praeceps amor, nec iudicium praestolator, nec consilio temperatur, nec pudore frenatur, nec rationi subicitur.” See also SC 27.11,64.10, 79.1; SBOp 1:190,2:171,2:272;Google ScholarSong 2: 84, 3: 177,4: 137.Google Scholar

73. Dil 10.27; SBOp 3:142; On Loving God, 119: “ut divino debriatus amore animus, oblitus sui… totus pergat in Deum.”Google Scholar

74. SC 27.10; SBOp 1:189;Google ScholarSong 2: 83: “proficit in virum perfectum, in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi.”Google Scholar

75. SC 27.10; SBOp 1:188–89; Song 2:83: “quae divinam in se praesentiam … digna invenitur suscipere … quid illa cui et spatiosa suppetunt deambulatoria ad opus quidem maiestatis?”Google Scholar

76. SC 27.10; SBOp 1:189;Google ScholarSong 2: 83: “Non est profecto intricata forensibus causis curisve saecularibus, nec certe ventri et luxurne dedita, sed nec curiosa spectandi, seu cupida omnino dominandi, veletiam tumida dominatu.”Google Scholar

77. SC 27.7; SBOp 1:186–87;Google ScholarSong 2: 80.Google Scholar

78. SC 27.10–11; SBOp 1:189–90;Google ScholarSong 2: 83–84.Google Scholar

79. SC 27:12; SBOp 1:190–91;Google ScholarSong 2: 85: “homines spirituales… contemplatione suspensos. Et hi pluentes pluviam verbi salutarem, tonant increpationibus … legem vitae et disciplinae digito quidem Dei scriptam in semetipsis ostendunt, ad dandum scientiam salutis plebi eius.”Google Scholar

80. SC 14.5; SBOp 1:79;Google ScholarSong 1: 101: “Sponsus et sponsa soli interim intus sint, mutuis secretisque fruantur amplexibus, nullo strepitu carnalium desideriorum, nullo corporeorum phantasmatum perturbante tumultu.”Google Scholar

81. See SC 80.2, SBOp 2:278, Song 4:146–47;Google ScholarSC 83.3, SBOp 2:299, Song 4:182.Google Scholar

82. SC 43.1–2, SBOp 2:41–42,Google ScholarSong 2: 220–221 (myrrh);Google ScholarSC 9.7–8,10.1, 32.10, 41.6, 52.6, 85.13, SBOp 1:46–47, 48, 232–33,2:36,93–94, 315–16,Google ScholarSong 1: 58–59, 61, 2:142–43, 208, 3:55,4:209. See Emero Steigman, “Action and Contemplation in St. Bernard's Sermons on the Song of Songs, ” in Walsh and Edmonds, Song 3:x-xii, on this theme, as well as Bynum, Jesus as Mother, 110–69.Google Scholar

83. SC 27.10, SBOp 1:189,Google ScholarSong 2: 83: “proficit in virum perfectum”; and SC 27.10, SBOp 1:188–89, Song 2:83: “quae divinam in se praesentiam … digna invenitur suscipere.”Google Scholar

84. SC 27.7; SBOp 1:186;Google ScholarSong 2: 80.Google Scholar

85. On the Virgin, see particularly Miss 1–4; SBOp 4:13–58; Homilies in Praise (CF 18a).Google Scholar

86. For Mary and Martha, see De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae 52 (hereafter Hum), SBOp 3:55.14–56.11,Google Scholartrans, as “Steps of Humility and Pride,” in Treatises II, trans. Walton, Robert, Cistercian Fathers Series 13 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian, 1980), 78–79;Google Scholarfor the Samaritan woman at the well, see Dil 26, SBOp 3:141.5–12, Treatises II, 118; the Gospel woman who searched her house for the lost coin is treated in Gra 32, SBOp 3:188.22–28, On Grace and Free Choice, 88. For further examples, see the analysis of Leclercq, Women and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.Google Scholar

87. SC 12.8–9; SBOp 1:65–66;Google ScholarSong 1: 84–85.Google Scholar

88. Newman, , From Virile Woman to WomanChrist, 26. Cf. Bynum, “ ‘… And Woman His Humanity‘” 268–69; and eadem, Jesus as Mother, 128.Google Scholar

89. Epp. 144.1, 154, 341, 389; SBOp 7:344, 7:361, 8:283, 8:356–57; James, Letters, 214, 230, 453, 379.Google Scholar

90. Cloke, , This Female Man of God, 75, 200–02, 216–17, 220. See also David Damrosch, who has argued that for Bernard, there are strong parallels between the facts of women's lives as “other” or second-class citizens in medieval society and the lives of Bernard and his monks. Damrosch goes to far as to suggest that Bernard appropriates both the positive and negative qualities of “woman” to describe what it means to live as outsiders in this world, in exile from God and trapped within the burdensome mortal body. Damrosch, “Non Alia Sed Aliter,” 181–95.Google Scholar

91. Mal l; SBOp 5:417; The Life and Death of Malachy, 97: “illecebris carnalibus et oblectamentis saecularibus viriliter abrenuntiasse.”Google Scholar

92. This is suggested by placing contemplative presence at the height of the four degrees of love (Dil 27; SBOp 3: 142; On Loving God 119–20), or bridal love at the top of the hierarchy of loves (SC 7.2, 83.4–5; SBOp 1:31–32, 2:300–01; Song 1:38–39, 4:183–85), as well as in those letters that urge the benefits of life in the cloister over life in the world (for instance, ep. 2; SBOp 7:12–22; James, Letters, 10–18).Google Scholar

93. SC 50–52, SBOp 2:78–95, Song 3:30–57, esp. SC 50.5,52.6; Newman, Boundaries of Charity.Google Scholar

94. SC 52.6, SBOp 2:94, Song 3:55; Div 101, SBOp 6.1:368.Google Scholar

95. Ep. 289; SBOp 8:205.16; James, Letters, 147.Google Scholar

96. Ep. 354; SBOp 8:298; James, Letters, 346.Google Scholar

97. Ep. 113.1, SBOp 7:288, James, Letters, 174; Miss 2.5, SBOp 4:24, Homilies in Praise (CF18a), 18.Google Scholar

98. Csi 2.14; SBOp 3:4442.6; Five Books on Consideration, 97.Google Scholar

99. SC 38.4; SBOp 2:16,17–28;Google ScholarSong 2: 189–90.Google Scholar

100. SC 45.3; SBOp 2:51.12–13;Google ScholarSong 2: 234: “Rara avis in terris, aut sanctitatem non perdere, aut humilitatem sanctimonia non excludi.”Google Scholar

101. SC 45.3–4; SBOp 2:51–52;Google ScholarSong 2: 234–35.Google Scholar

102. SC 27.10; SBOp 1:189;Google ScholarSong 2: 83: “proficit in virum perfectum, in mensuram aetatis pienitudinis Christi.”Google Scholar

103. Leclercq, , Women and St. Bernard;Google ScholarHufgard, M. Kilian, “St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Image of Womanhood,” Cistercian Studies 24 (1989): 215–22;Google ScholarRussel, Edith, “Saint Bernard et les dames de son temps,” in Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, Editiones Alsatia Paris 6 (Paris: Commission d'histoire de l'ordre de Citeaux, 1953), 411–25.Google Scholar

104. Sermon 2.2–3; SBOp 4:22–23; Homilies in Praise (CF 18a) 16–17.Google Scholar

105. Leclercq, , Women and St. Bernard, 92–109.Google Scholar

106. Bynum, , Jesus as Mother, 148–49.Google Scholar

107. See n. 47 above.Google Scholar

108. Bernard himself refers to this paradox several times in the Sermons on the Song of Songs. See SC 25.7,29.7,34.4; SBOp 1:167,208, 247;Google ScholarSong 2: 55, 108–9, 163.Google Scholar