BERNARD, St, the first abbot of Clairvaux, was born in the year 1091, in the village of Fontaine, in Burgundy. He acquired so great a reputation by his zeal and abilities, that all the affairs of the church appeared to rest upon his shoulders, and kings and princes seemed to have chosen him as general arbitrator of their differences. It was owing to him that Innocent II. was acknowledged sovereign pontiff, and that, after the death of Peter Louis anti-pope, Victor, who had been named successor, made a voluntary abdication of his dignity. He convicted Abelard at the council of Sens, in the year 1140; he opposed the monk Raoul; he persecuted the followers of Arnaud dc Bresse; and, in 1148, he caused Gilbert de la Por-vicé, bishop of Poitiers, and Eonde l’Etoile, to be condemned in the council of Rheims. By such zealous behaviour he verified, according to Mr Bayle, the interpretation of his mother’s dream. She had dreamed, when with child of him, that she should bring forth a white dog, whose barking should be very loud. Astonished at this dream, which she was unable to unriddle, she consulted a monk, who said to her, “Bc of good courage; you shall have a son who shall guard the house of God, and bark loudly against the enemies of the faith.” But St Bernard went far beyond the prediction; for he barked sometimes against chimerical enemies, and was more successful in exterminating the heterodox than in putting down infidels, although he attacked the latter, not only with the ordinary arms of his eloquence, but also with the extraordinary weapon of prophecy. He preached up the crusade under Louis the Younger, and added greatly to the troops of the crusaders. But all the fine hopes with which he had flattered the people were disappointed by the event; and when it was alleged that he had hurried a vast number of Christians to slaughter, without sharing the dangers which he had induced so many to brave, the saint defended himself by alleging that the sins of the crusaders had destroyed the efficacy of his prophecies. He is said, however, to have founded 160 monasteries, and to have wrought a prodigious number of miracles. H e died on the 20th of August 1153, at the age of sixty-three·
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The best edition of his works is that of 1690 by Father Mabillon.

Bernard, Dr Edward, a learned astronomer, linguist, and critic, was born at Perry St Paul, on the 2d of May 1638, and educated at Merchant-Tailor’s school, and St John’s College, Oxford. During his stay at school he had laid in such a fund of classical learning, that, on entering the university, he was master of all the elegancies of the Greek and Latin tongues, and not unacquainted with the Hebrew. On his settling in the university, he applied himself to the study of history, philology, and philosophy, and made himself master of the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic languages; after which he turned his attention to the study of the mathematics under Dr Wallis. Having successively taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, and afterwards that of bachelor of divinity, he went to Leyden to consult several oriental manuscripts left to the university there by Joseph Scaliger and Levi-nus Warnerus. At his return to Oxford he collated and examined the most valuable manuscripts in the Bodleian library; and being of a communicative disposition, he in consequence became engaged in a very extensive correspondence with the learned of most countries. In the year 1669 the celebrated Christopher Wren, Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, having been appointed surveyor general of his majesty’s works, and obliged by this employment to spend much of his time in London, obtained leave to name a deputy at Oxford, and immediately pitched upon Mr Bernard; which engaged the latter in a more particular application to the study of astronomy. In 1676 he was sent by the earl of Arlington to France as tutor to the dukes of Grafton and Northumberland, sons of Charles II. by the duchess of Cleveland, and then living with their mother at Paris; but the simplicity of his manners not suiting the gaiety of the duchess’s family, he returned about a year after to Oxford, and resumed his studies, in which he made great proficiency, as his astronomical and critical works abundantly testify. He composed tables of the longitudes, latitudes, right ascensions, and declinations of the fixed stars; Observations in Latin on the Obliquity of the Ecliptic; and several other pieces inserted in the Philosophical Transactions. He also wrote, 1. A Treatise on the Ancient Weights and Measures; 2. Chronologiae Samaritanoe Synopsis, in two tables; 3. Testimonies of the Ancients concerning the Greek Version of the Old Testament by the Seventy; and several other learned works. He was a person of great piety, virtue, and humanity, and died on the 12th January 1696, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, leaving behind him a number of manuscripts which were considered valuable.

Bernard, James, professor of philosophy and mathematics, and minister of the Walloon church at Leyden, was born on the 1st September 1658, at Nions, in Dauphine. Having studied at Geneva, he returned to France in 1679, and was chosen minister of Venterol, a village m Dauphine, whence he was removed some time afterwards to the church of Vinsobres, in the same province. But the persecution raised against the Protestants in France having obliged him to abandon his native country, he retired to Holland, where he was received with great civility, and appointed one of the pensionary ministers of Gauda. In July 1688 he began a political publication entitled Histoire Abrégée de l’Europe, which he continued monthly till December 1688. In 1692 he began his Lettres Historiques, containing an account of the most important transactions in Europe, with suitable reflections; and he carried on this work, which was also published monthly, till the end of the year 1698. It was afterwards continued by other hands, and consists of a great number of volumes. Mr le Clerc having left off his Bibliothèque Universelle in 1691, Mr Bernard wrote the greater part of the twentieth volume, and carried on the five following volumes to the year 1693. In 1698 he collected and published Actes et Négociations de la Paix de Ryszvic, in four volumes 12mo. In 1699 lie began the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, which continued till December 1710. Mr Bernard having acquired great reputation by his works, as well as by his sermons at Gauda and the Hague, the congregation of the Walloon church at Leyden became extremely desirous to have him as one of their ministers; and a vacancy happening in 1705, he was unanimously elected to that office. About the same time Mr de Valder, professor of philosophy and mathematics at Leyden, having resigned his situation, Mr Bernard was appointed his successor; and the university presented him with the degrees of doctor in philosophy and master of arts. His public and private lectures occupied the greater part of his time; yet he did not neglect his pastoral function, but composed his sermons with great care, and also wrote two excellent treatises, one on a late repentance, the other on the excellency of religion. In 1716 he published a supplement to Moreri’s Dictionary, in two volumes folio. The same year he resumed his Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, and continued it till his death, which happened on the 27th of April 1718, in the sixtieth year of his age.

Bernard, St, the Great, a mountain in Savoy and Switzerland, between Valais and the valley of Aoste, at the source of the rivers Drance and Doria, and forming part of the Pennine Alps. The top is always covered with snow, and there is a monastery situated there, where the monks entertain travellers hospitably without regard to difference -of religion.