If the diffusion of his works and the range of his influence is to be taken as any guide, St Bernard was beyond question the most outstanding figure in the Europe of his day. Certainly among the schoolmen, no teacher ever had so many devoted disciples, no single preacher so fired the imagination of thousands, there was no one whose moral drive was so potent a fact in the lives of men of every degree. There were saints of the towns and saints of the country, saints of the court and the schoolroom: Bernard spoke to the world. Even to this day, when all allowance has been made for the misfortunes of time, of fire and casual destruction, a tangible witness to his power could be assembled in sackloads of manuscripts from the greater libraries, and those who have merely a nodding acquaintance with the available materials will know why Mabillon, that indefatigable scholar, doubted if any single individual were capable of coping with the task of collation. Available in print by 1475, although we still await anything like that critical edition which the great Maurist was content to leave for another generation, St Bernard’s works have never ceased to be re-edited and translated right up to 1953, the eighth centenary of his death. Among the many volumes and essays devoted to Bernard in the present year, the Rev. Bruno Scott James has given us an English translation of the letters and the familiar biography by Dr Watkin Williams has been reprinted.