BERNARD OF FONTCAUDE

premonstratensian theologian; d. c. 1192. He seems to have been first abbot of Fontcaude in the former Diocese of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, which he governed in 1172 and which Pope lucius iii in 1184 placed under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Narbonne. In 1182 Bernard signed a charter in favor of the Abbey of aniane, and in 1188, a document concerning the monastery of Combelongue. He wrote polemical tracts against the waldenses, published by Gretzer, together with two similar works in Tria scriptorum adversus Valdensium sectam: Ebruardus Bethunensis, Bernardus abbas Fontis Calidi, Ermengaudus (Ingolstadt 1614; Patrologia Latina 204:793–840). Bernard had been present at a disputation between Waldenses and Catholics and afterward undertook to edit and summarize the various points presented by both sides. His work is therefore considered to be an important source on the origins of the sect and the basis of their doctrinal position.

Bibliography: a. borst, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2d new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:243. j. b. bossuet, The History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, 2 v. (New York 1836) bk. 9, ch. 75–79. c. de vic and j. vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc, 16 v. in 17 (rev. ed. Toulouse 1872–1904) 6:218. l. e. dupin, Histoire des controverses et des matières ecclésiastiques, 9 v. (Paris 1694–98) 5:599. j. a. fabricius, Bibliotheca latina mediae et infimae aetatis, 6 v. in 3 (Florence 1858–59) 1:213. Gallia Christiana (Paris 1856–65) 6:267. Histoire littéraire de la France (Paris 1814–1941) 15:35. l. verrees, Analecta Praemonstratensia 31:5–35.

[j. daoust]