CLERVAUX (CLERF). - Benedictine Abbey of SS. Maurizio and Mauro, in Luxembourg, erected in 1909 to succeed the Abbey of S. Mauro of Glanfeuil (diocese of Angers), which the monks left in 1901 following the laws on religious congregations.
It is the seat of an association of prayers for the conversion of the Scandinavian peoples. The Pontifical Abbey of S. Girolamo in Rome, erected by Pius XI in 1933 to continue the work of revising the Vulgate, was united to C. as a dependent house.
BERNARDO of CLES. - Cardinal, born in Cles on 11 March 1485, died in Bressanone on 28 July 1539. He studied in Bologna; during the pontificate of Leo X, he was elected (12 June 1514) Bishop of Trento, a city he greatly benefited with his munificence, embellishing it with numerous buildings, including practical works such as aqueducts and road paving. He opposed the Protestant Reformation, to the extent that his anti-Lutheran efforts earned the praise of Adrian VI in 1523. He was created cardinal by Clement VII in 1530. Having gone to Bressanone, of whose bishopric he had been appointed administrator, he died there suddenly.
He was a man of great energy and broad political vision (especially as chancellor to Ferdinand I), a friend and protector of the arts and letters. He was a friend of Erasmus of Rotterdam, with whom he shared an aversion to all fanaticism and a sense of religion understood primarily as interior recollection. Nevertheless, as a fervent man of action, he immediately recognized, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation, the necessity of convening a council: as early as 1522, he had urged Adrian VI in this direction, and at the meeting in Bologna between Charles V and Clement VII (December 1532), where he took part in the negotiations, he advocated the urgency of summoning a council.