ARNOLD (Arnoldo, Ernald), Abbot of Bonneval. - Friend and biographer of St. Bernard. His life is little known. He was a monk at Marmoutier when, after 1138, he was elected abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Bonneval (Bona Vallis), in the diocese of Chartres: hence he is also called A. of Chartres. There he suffered various adversities, on account of which he went to Rome, where the Pope acknowledged his innocence. He enjoyed the esteem and friendship of St. Bernard, with whom he was in correspondence (cf. St. Bernard, Ep. 310: PL 182, 514), and whose exegetical method he imitated. He died after 1156. The Cistercian Menologium commemorates him on February 6, praising him as «vir doctrina pariter et pietate celebris».
His writings are of exegetical and ascetical importance: 1) De operibus sex dierum or Hexaemeron, of which the copy in the National Library of Paris (ms. lat. 1925) bears the title Paradisus animae: in it St. Ambrose and St. Basil are cited. Its first editor, Denis Perronet, called it a «shining gem». 2) Commentarius in Ps. CXXXII: 5 homilies, a model of piety and gentle eloquence. 3) Expositio super Isaam, unpublished (ms. 923 of the library of Troyes): it is a compendium of Jerome's commentary. 4) De cardinalibus operibus Christi, formerly attributed to St. Cyprian (cf. J. Huby, Une exigée faussement attribuée à s. Cyprien in Biblica, 14 [1933], p. 96): 12 discourses on the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ, preceded by a pio Prologo dedicatory to Pope Adrian IV, of which the VIIth (De oblutione pedum) on the symbolism of the washing of the feet, echoing St. Bernard, is interesting (cf. A. Malvy, in DThC, IX, col. 34); a theory that St. R. Bellarmine and Maldonatus (In Jo. 13, 7) have pointed out as belonging to St. Cyprian (M. J. Lagrange, Ev. Selon s. Jean, 7th ed., Paris 1947, pp. 349 and 550, attributes to him, exaggerating, sacramental efficacy). 5) De septem verbis Domini in cruce: «in eia - he writes - sua omnia Christus recapitulat dogmata» (PL 189, 1678). 6) Meditationes (on the Passion of the Lord), already published among the writings of Cyprian. 7) De septem donis Spiritus Sancti, in 17 chapters. 8) De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis, a lively and devout sermon. 9) Liber secundus of the Vita s. Bernardi, written at the request of the monks of Clairvaux, erroneously attributed by De Visch to another author of the same name, who would have been abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Bonnevaux (Bonavallis) near Vienne. According to Vacandard, the work displays «une remarquable sagacité».
A. has the merits of a delicate, eloquent and pious writer, endowed with profound learning. More than an exegete, he is a mystic yearning for knowledge and the divine life.
Bibliography6 works
Izino Cecchetti