[1] In 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux came to Paris, and before the assembled scholars preached a sermon "De conversione ad clericos",[2] 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.
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.
Owing to difficulties with the monks, he was forced to resign in 1165; but in 1170 he was appointed to the Abbey of Fossa Nuova in the diocese of Terracina, Italy, and in 1176 to that of Haute Combe, Savoy.
In the political events of the time he had only a small share; thus, in 1167 and 1168, he took part in the negotiations tending towards the reconciliation of Pope Alexander III (1159–81) with the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa and King Henry II of England.
[4] He also wrote fragments of a life of St. Bernard, probably used in the first books of the complete life;[5] an account of the saint's journey to Toulouse, in a letter to his teacher Archenfredus;[6] an account of the saint's journey through Germany, the third part of the sixth book of St. Bernard's life;[7] a panegyric delivered in 1163 on the anniversary of Bernard's death;[8] Declamationes de colloquio Simonis cum Jesu,[9] an ascetical work compiled from the sermons of St. Bernard; Libellus contra capitula Gilberti Pictaviensis Episcopi,[10] a refutation of the errors of Gilbert de la Porrée; a letter to Albinus, Cardinal Bishop of Albano, on the same subject;[11] a life of St. Peter of Tarentaise (1175);[12] 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;[13] sermons and commentaries on books of Scripture, partly in print and partly manuscript.