Bernard of Toledo

BERNARD OF TOLEDO: Archbishop of Toledo 1086–1125; b. at Agen (73 m. s.e. of Bordeaux), France, c. 1050; d. in Spain 1125. His significance in the history of Spain lies in the fact that from him dates the emergence of the Spanish Church from its isolation and its dependence on Rome. He became a monk in the monastery of Cluny, whence he was sent to Spain with others to assist the cause of the reforms of Gregory VII. Here he was made (1080) abbot of St. Facundus at Sahagun in the diocese of Leon, and finally named by Alfonso VI for the archbishopric of Toledo. Gregory's plans for Spain included (besides a general crusade against clerical marriage, simony, and lay investiture) the substitution of the Roman liturgy for the Mozarabic and the recognition of the obligations of tribute from the Spanish Church. The former point had been practically gained before his death, in spite of strenuous opposition. Urban II, by raising Bernard's see to primatial dignity, gave him the power necessary to prosecute the work of Romanizing. His cooperation made possible Urban's intervention at the Synod of Leon (1091) and ignoring of the royal right of investiture when Alfonso attempted to appoint a Spaniard to the see of St. Jago, apparently in order to counterbalance the influence of the French Benedictines with whom the primate was filling the episcopal sees. His career was throughout that of a devoted adherent of the papacy. Some reminiscences of his youthful days as a knight appear in his forcible seizure of the Mohammedan mosque at Toledo in his first year as archbishop and in his plans for a crusade against the Saracens of the East, which both Urban II and Paschal II forbade, in view of the tasks which Spanish Christian chivalry had at home. Four of his sermons, on the Salve Regina, are included among those of the great Bernard.

Carl Mirbt.

Bibliography: J. Aschbach, Geschichte Spaniens und Portugals zur Zeit der Herrschaft der Almoraviden und Almohaden, i, 129 sqq., 339, 358 sqq., Frankfort, 1833; Historia Compostellana: España sagrada, ed. H. Florez, xx, 1–598, 615, Madrid, 1791; A. F. Gfrörer, Papst Gregorius VII und sein Zeitalter, iv, 484, 500–501, Schaffhausen, 1854; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, v, 200, 251, 328–327; idem, Der Kardinal Ximenes, pp. 150 sqq., Arnheim, 1853.