512 



BERN ADOTTE BERNARD. 



treasures, both of printed books and manuscripts. 

 Several private persons ha\e museums, \vliich are 

 generally open to strangers. Trade and commerce 

 are lively : the manufactories furnish wix>len cloth, 

 printed linen, silk Mini's, stortings, ,^c. There are 

 few cities with finer promenades,' or where they are 

 kept in better repair. One of the favourite walks, 

 for instance, is near the cathedral, raised at great 

 expense, ami planted with four rows of trees. The side 

 towards the Aar is ins feet aUm- the riser, which 

 i.< re forms a beautiful cascade, equaling that of the 

 Uiiineat Laullcn, if not in height, at li ast in breadth. 



HKKXAl>o-rrK. See fl,,trl,:t X H ~. 



HKK.N.\KI>, Great St; a mountain between the Va- 

 lais and the valley of Aosia, ll.()-.'7 feet high. On 

 its top is the boundary between the Valais and Pied- 

 mont. The road from the lake of Geneva through 

 the Valais, into the valley of Aosta, passes over it. 

 The Little St H.. 7,l!U feet high, separates Piedmont 

 from Savoy. Over this Hannibal directed his inarch. 

 Bernard OB Menthon, a Savoyard nobleman, who 

 lived from il.^J to 1008, built here, in 9G2, two hos- 

 pititij for the. benefit of those on a pilgrimage to 

 Home, one upon mont Joux, where a temple of 

 Jupiter stood, the other on the road that leads over 

 the Cirison Alps, at a place called Colonne Jou, from 

 a pillar which was an object of idolatrous worship. 

 Animated by a pious zeal, Bernard destroyed the 

 pillar and temple, and, with their ruins, built the 

 two hotpitia on the Great and Little St Bernard, so 

 called after him. He committed the care of both 

 these establishments to monks of the order of St 

 Augustine, who, with an almost unexampled self- 

 ilevotion, exercised the most generous hospitality 

 towards travelers, down to the time of Charles 

 Emanuel III. of Sardinia. This king, falling into a 

 dispute with the cantons of Switzerland about the 

 nomination of a provost, sequestrated the possessions 

 of the monks, and gave the administration of the 

 hospitia to regular canons of the Augustine order, 

 who, with equal humanity and devotion, discharge 

 tlie duties of their pious calling. Upon the barren 

 height (7668 feet), where the hospitium of the Great 

 St Bernard stands, which is considered to be the 

 highest inhabited place in Europe, an almost ever- 

 lasting winter reigns ; in vain do we look for a tree 

 or bush ; the glittering snow dazzles the eye of the 

 wanderer. Assisted by the servants of the convent, 

 the heroic ecclesiastics, provided with wine and 

 bread, devote themselves to the guidance of travel- 

 ers ; and, in order to defend the poor against the 

 cold, they lend or give them clothes, which are kept 

 for tliat purpose. Upwards of 9000 persons annually 

 pass over the mountain, who are refreshed in the 

 hospitium. In the midst of tempests and snow- 

 storms, the monks, accompanied by dogs (called 

 marons), set out for the purpose of tracking those 

 who have lost their way. If they find the body of a 

 traveler who has perished, they carry it into the 

 vault of the dead, where it is wrapped in linen, and 

 remains lying on a table till another victim occupies 

 the place. It is then set up against the wall, among 

 the other dead bodies, which, on account of the cold, 

 decay so slowly, that they are often recognised by 

 their friends after the lapse of years. Adjoining this 

 vatdt is a kind of burying-ground, where the bones 

 are deposited, when they accumulate too much in 

 the vault. It is impossible to bury them, because 

 there is nothing around the hospitium but naked 

 rocks. In the church is the monument of general 

 Dessaix, who fell in the battle of Marengo. The 

 first consul ordered him to be embalmed, and assigned 

 him a resting place on the summit of the Alps. The 

 monument of marble represents Dessaix in relief, 

 wounded 1 , and sinking from his horse into the arms 



of his aid I.e Unin. On the stairs of the convent 

 stands his statue of marble. Opposite to it there is 

 a slab of marble, on which the republic of Valais 

 commemorated Napoleon's passage over the St 15., 

 May 15, 1800, with an inscription in letters of gold. 

 By means of a contribution raised through Europe, 

 a short time ago, the habitations of the nine or ten 

 ecclesiastics have been made more comfortable. 



BKRNARD of Clairvaux ; one of the most influential 

 ecclesiastics of the middle ages, was born at Fon- 

 taines, in Burgundy, 1091, of a noble family. In 

 1 1 13, he became a monk at Citeaux ; in 1 1 15, first 

 abbot of Clairvaux, near Langres. An austere man- 

 ner of living, solitary studies, an inspiring eloquence, 

 boldness of language, and the reputation of a pro- 

 phet, rendered him an oracle to all Christian Europe. 

 He was named the honeyed teacher, and his writings 

 were styled a stream from paradise. The doctrine 

 of the immaculate conception of Mary was reject i il 

 by him. He principally promoted the crusade in 

 1146, and quieted the fermentation, caused at that 

 time by a party of monks, against the Jews in (ier- 

 many. He declined all promotion, and, in the rank. 

 of abbot of his Moved Jerusalem (as he used to call 

 Clairvaux), he continued with all humility, but with 

 great boldness, his censures of the clergy and his 

 counsels to the popes. Innocent II. owed to him the 

 possession of the right of investiture in Germany, 

 and Eugenius III. his education. He was, at the 

 same time, the umpire of princes and bishops, and 

 his voice in the synods was regarded as divine. By 

 his rigid orthodoxy and his mystical doctrines, which, 

 though at times enthusiastic, were always directed to 

 the promotion of practical Christianity, he refuted 

 the subtleties and dialectics of the scholastic philoso- 

 phers, although his severity against Abelard and 

 Gilbert of Poree Gin by no means be justified. Lu- 

 ther says of him, " If there has ever been a pious 

 monk who feared God, it was St Bernard ; whom 

 alone I hold in much higher esteem than all other 

 monks and priests throughout the globe." B. died 

 in 1153, and was canonized by Alexander III., in 

 1174. (See Aug. Neander's St Bernard and liis 

 Times, Berlin, 1813.) His works have been trans- 

 lated from the Latin, and published by professor 

 Silbert (Vienna, 1820). 



BERNARD, duke of Weimar, general in the thirty 

 years' war, born Aug. 6, 1604, the fourth son of 

 duke John of Saxe-Weimar, entered into the service 

 of Holland, at that time the best school for a soldier, 

 where prince Maurice of Nassau (the creator of a 

 better system of tactics), his brother Frederic Henry, 

 the marquis Spinola, and other great generals, were 

 opposed to one another. B. afterwards entered the 

 Danish army employed in Holstein against the troops 

 of the emperor, and commanded by the margrave of 

 Baden-Durlach, and was present at the conference 

 of Lubeck, 1629, for negotiating peace. When 

 Gustavus Adolphus entered Germany, B. joined him, 

 and was present at the attack upon Wallenstein's 

 camp, in the neighbourhood of Nuremberg, Aug. 24, 

 1632. In the battle of Lutzen, Oct. 6, 163^, he 

 commanded the left wing of the Swedish army, 

 avenged the death of Gustavus Adolphus, and, 

 although himself severely wounded, put the right 

 wing of the imperial troops to flight. Chancellor 

 Oxenstiern, the Swedish director of the war in 

 Germany, after the death of the king, committed 

 the command of half the army to him. B., in 1633, 

 took Bamberg, Cronach, Hochstadt, and Aich- 

 stadt; but his attempt upon Ingolstadt miscarried. 

 He also brought the cities of Ratisbon and Strau- 

 bing into his power, and frustrated Wallenstein's 

 intentions. The king of Sweden made him duke of 

 Franconia. His impetuosity caused the defeat at 



