Who Is Saint Bernard's Persecuting?
Saint Bernard, the great troubadour of Our Lady Church Doctor, was also a great orator and preacher of the Crusades; He was the official preacher of the Second Crusade.
In his famous opusculum, De laude novae militae , Saint Bernard addressed the Knights Templars — using Saint Augustine's arguments on the famous reply of Saint John the Baptist to the soldiers — he wrote: “What then? If it is never permissible for a Christian to strike with the sword, why did the Savior’s precursor bid the soldiers to be content with their pay, and not rather forbid them to follow this calling? I do not mean to say that the pagans are to be slaughtered when there is any other way to prevent them from harassing and persecuting the faithful, but only that it now
seems better to destroy them than that the rod of sinners be lifted over the lot of the just, and the righteous perhaps put forth their hands unto iniquity ”.
In his famous opusculum, De laude novae militae , Saint Bernard addressed the Knights Templars — using Saint Augustine's arguments on the famous reply of Saint John the Baptist to the soldiers — he wrote: “What then? If it is never permissible for a Christian to strike with the sword, why did the Savior’s precursor bid the soldiers to be content with their pay, and not rather forbid them to follow this calling? I do not mean to say that the pagans are to be slaughtered when there is any other way to prevent them from harassing and persecuting the faithful, but only that it now
seems better to destroy them than that the rod of sinners be lifted over the lot of the just, and the righteous perhaps put forth their hands unto iniquity ”.