AIGLERIO (Aiglerius and Ayglerius, in French Ayglier and Aylier, known in Benedictine history under the name BERNARD I AIGLERIO or AYGLERIO). - Abbot of Montecassino (1263-82), born, it seems, in Lyon of a noble Burgundian family, died 4 April 1282. As a youth he consecrated himself to God in the Benedictine abbey of Savigny, in the diocese of Lyon. There, having completed his studies, he was discharging the important office of "porter" when, in 1256, he was called to the abbatial seat of Lérins. Urban IV, by a bull of 29 March 1263, appointed Bernard to the government of Montecassino.
The famous monastery had fallen into miserable decay. Involved in political struggles, it had been stripped of its possessions by the Swabian princes Frederick II, Conrad IV and Manfred, and, its monks driven out — among whom had been the pupil Thomas Aquinas — it had been reduced to a fortress. Urban IV, French by birth, seeking the new abbot of Montecassino in France, aimed to give the archicenobium a vigorous and prudent man, capable not only of re-establishing religious discipline, but also of reclaiming its possessions and of contributing to the success of the House of Anjou, whose interests at that time coincided with those of the Papacy.
In the first three years, Bernard could do nothing; but, with the favor of Charles of Anjou, after the latter took S. Germano, he devoted himself to the restoration of Montecassino, which he repopulated with monks. The work he carried out for the reorganization of the immense patrimony, the meticulous inquiry he made into the abbot's feudal rights, was entrusted to history in three volumes entitled Regestum Bernardi I abbatis, whose surviving fragments, through the munificence of Leo XIII, were published in 1890 (Tipografia Vaticana) by the Cassinese monk dom Anselmo Caplet (cf. Revue Bénéd., 8 [1891], pp. 143-44).
Along with the material interests of the abbey, Bernard looked above all to its spiritual interests, firmly restoring monastic discipline: famous is the chapter he held for this purpose on 2 Oct. 1273, in the presence of the Sacrament solemnly exposed.
To instruct his religious concerning the nature of their obligations, he wrote the Speculum monachorum, a highly esteemed work, which subsequently had various editions (Venice 1505, Paris 1507, Cologne 1520, Freiburg im Breisgau 1901), and he drew up an erudite commentary on the Rule, In Regulam s. Benedicti expositio, published by dom Anselmo Caplet from a Cassinese manuscript contemporary with the author (Montecassino 1894).
A. rendered many services to the Apostolic See, also by accepting the burden of no few legations: in France, to organize the struggle against the Albigensians; in Venice, in 1269, to negotiate an alliance against the Turks; in Hungary, in the same year, to conclude a marriage between the son of Charles of Anjou and Maria, sister of King Ladislaus. Gregory X sent him to Constantinople in the hope that negotiations with Michael Palaiologos would lead to the union of the Churches. But Charles of Anjou, eager to extend his dominion in the East, looked with disfavor on the emergence of good relations between Byzantium and Rome, and took his revenge on the abbot of Montecassino, seizing one of his domains and depriving him of the right of high justice. This act wounded the noble soul of A., who had endured so many labors for the prestige of the monastery and had done so much for the success of the Angevins.
A friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, he received his request for the opening of a Dominican house at S. Germano (1269). He had an illustrious brother, Ayglerius, abbot of Ainay and, from 1265, archbishop of Naples. To him he entrusted the Cassinese cenobium when, on account of long diplomatic missions, he was forced to absent himself from it (cf. P. Paschini, s. v. in DHG, V, col. 1281).
It has been said and continues to be said that Bernard was invested with the cardinalitial dignity by Urban IV, but the editor of his Regestum (p. cxiv f.) rightly points out this error.
Bibliography5 works
Igino Cecchetti