Geoffrey of Auxerre

Geoffrey of Clairvaux, or Geoffrey of Auxerre, was the secretary and biographer of Bernard of Clairvaux and later abbot of a number of monasteries in the Cistercian tradition.

Life

He was born between the years 1115 and 1120, at Auxerre. At an early age he entered the ranks of the clergy, and followed for some time the course of lectures given by Abelard.

In 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux came to Paris, and before the assembled scholars preached a sermon "De conversione ad clericos", in which he dwelt on the vanities of a life in the world, on the necessity of a sincere conversion, and on the peace to be found in the monastic profession. Geoffrey, with several others, followed St. Bernard and joined the monastic community of Clairvaux.

Soon he became his notarius, or secretary, and his permanent companion. In 1145 he accompanied him to Toulouse and other cities of Southern France, where the saint preached against the Albigensian heresy of a certain Henry and his partisans. During the years 1146-47 he travelled with Bernard through France and Germany, where the saint aroused people for a crusade to the Holy Land. He was the chief author of a life of St. Bernard in five books, furnishing materials for the first two books, revising them, and adding three of his own.

He also wrote fragments of a life of St. Bernard, probably used in the first books of the complete life; an account of the saint's journey to Toulouse, in a letter to his teacher Archenfredus; an account of the saint's journey through Germany, the third part of the sixth book of St. Bernard's life; a panegyric delivered in 1163 on the anniversary of Bernard's death; Declamationes de colloquio Simonis cum Jesu, an ascetical work compiled from the sermons of St. Bernard; Libellus contra capitula Gilberti Pictaviensis Episcopi, a refutation of the errors of Gilbert de la Porrée; a letter to Albinus, Cardinal Bishop of Albano, on the same subject; a life of St. Peter of Tarentaise (1175); a letter to the above-named Cardinal of Albano, as to whether the water added to the wine in the chalice is changed into blood of Our Lord; sermons and commentaries on books of Scripture, partly in print and partly manuscript.