Hymn Writers of the Church

Bernard of Cluny was a monk of the twelfth century; the exact dates of his birth and death are not known. His parents were English, but he was born at Morlaix, France. He was an inmate of the Abbey of Cluny, and dedicated his famous poem to Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny from 1122 to 1156. His long poem, about three thousand lines, was a satire against the vices and follies of his time. Dr. Neale, who gives a translation of four hundred lines in the third edition of his Mediaeval Hymns, 1868, says of this poem: "The greater part is a bitter satire on the fearful corruptions of the age. But, as a contrast to the misery and pollution of earth, the poem opens with a description of the peace and glory of heaven of such rare beauty as not easily to be matched by any mediaeval composition on the same subject." It is this part of the poem that Dr. Neale translated and from which our hymns are taken.