known as Clairvaux. Here the hardships suffered by the monks in their
maintenance of the strict Benedictine rule and the entire mastery over
his bodily senses obtained by their young abbot built up a reputation
which reacted on the whole body of the Cistercians, and soon made them
the most revered and widespread of all the monastic Orders. Bernard
himself became the unconscious worker of many miracles: he was the
friend and adviser of great potentates in Church and State, and
without the least effort on his own part he was gradually acquiring a
position as the arbiter of Christendom.

[Sidenote: Acceptance of Innocent II.]

As yet he had confined his interferences in secular matters to the
kingdom of France and some of its great fiefs; he had rebuked the King
of France for persecution of two bishops; he had remonstrated with the
Count of Champagne for cruelty to a vassal. Now he was called upon to
intervene for the first time in a matter of European importance. The
whole question of the papal election was submitted to his judgment,
and his clear decision in favour of Innocent carried the allegiance of
France. Advocates of Innocent could not base his claims on legal
right, and Bernard led the way in asserting his superiority in
personal merit over his rival. At Chartres Innocent met Henry I of
England and Normandy, and again it was Bernard's eloquence which won
Henry's adhesion. A Synod of German clergy at Wurzburg acknowledged
Innocent, and Lothair accepted the decision. But when Innocent met the
German King at Liege in March, 1131, fortunately for the Pope Bernard
was still by his side. It is true that Lothair stooped to play the
part of papal groom, which had been played only by Conrad, the
rebellious son of Henry IV; that he and his wife were both crowned by
the Pope in the cathedral; and that he promised to lead the Pope back