Lawlor — Notes on St. Bernard's Life of St. Mulnchy. 259 



himself was prohibited by Kint; Stephen from <,'oin<j; to Irelaml in 1150.' 

 Paparo arrived towards tlie end of 1151, probably in October"; and if, as is 

 likely, ho was the bearer of Gilla Griost's legatine commission, it mic;ht be 

 inferred that the Life of Malachy is to be dated before the end of that year. 

 But all that can be said with certainty is that it was published within 

 the period January, 1149, to March, 1152. 



There is, however, a passage in the Life itself which points to the verj' 

 beginning of that period. It is the sentence, already quoted, in which the 

 assertion is made that when Malachy reached the coast of Kent Eugenius 

 was already at or near Eome.^ How St. Bernard could have said this, even 

 at the time of Malachy's death, not to speak of a later date, is hard to 

 understand. 



The Pope left Clairvaux in the last week of April, 1148, by the ordinary 

 route over the Great St. Bernard, and on 30 June he dated a letter from 

 Pavia. St. Bernard, when he wrote, can scarcely have known how he lagged 

 on his way. At Pavia he left the Eome road in order to visit Cremona, 

 Brescia, where he spent two months, and Pisa, where he remained for at least 

 a month. From that place he once more turned iiis face towards Eome, 

 and reached Viterbo on 30 Jfovember. Apparently another year passed 

 before he was at the Latei'an (28 November, 1149).' St. Bernard cannot have 

 been aware of all this when he wrote his Life of Malachy. And yet there 

 was no man outside Italy who was more liicely to be conversant with the 

 doings of Popes than he ; and there was no Pope of his time whose 

 movements would have a greater interest for him, on personal grounds, than 

 Eugenius, the " special son of Clair\aux." He must surely have been better 

 informed when he sent the first boolc of liis De Consideratione to Eugenius in 

 1149. We do not entirely remove the ditHculty due to his ignorance by 

 assigning an early date to the Vita. But evidently the further back we can 

 place it the less tlie difficulty becomes. What, then, is its earliest possible 

 date ?. 



I have already suggested that it cannot have been written before January, 

 1149. But some may be disposed to think that it must be considerably later. 

 It may be urged that time was required to collect material, especially the 

 facts which were communicated by Congan and other Irish friends. But 

 that is not by any means certain. Some, if not all, of the Irishmen from 

 whom St. Bernard acquired infornuition, apart from Malachy himself, had 

 been under his instruction at Clairvaux, and they were coming and going for 



' John of He.\luiin in Simeon of JJin-ham, ii, '.i'M. - Ibid. ; Fi>ur Alii-stt-is. 



^ Above, p. 249. * Jatfe, Meytstu. pp. t):5.^-639. 



