Religions Reviewed

Several important allusions to scripture are present in “Arnulf of Majorca.” Arnulf’s difficulty in separating from his family evokes the gospel instruction of Jesus to place God before family (Matthew 10.37, Luke 14.26). In receiving Arnulf at Clairvaux, Bernard specifically compares him to the resurrected Lazarus (John 11). Arnulf’s craving for punishment is related to Hebrews 12, and his renunciation of his wealth reflects the teachings of Jesus regarding worldly riches and eternal life (Matthew 19.16-26). As in other exempla, these scriptural references serve as connections from the “place” of this story to the other “places” that have become familiar and mentally rich for the monks through their practices of lectio divina.

In contrast to “Constant Bound Over for Hanging,” “Arnulf of Majorca” emphasizes the internal difficulties and anxieties of the protagonist. It is also interesting to observe the statement, “Erat autem circa custodiam cordis sollicitus,” where sollicitus specifically indicates careful thought.  Cordis can refer not only to an emotional “heart,” but to the heart as a site of memory. Even after anatomical opinion tended to relocate all mental faculties in the brain, memory continued to be identified with the heart, as it still is in the English idiom: “to learn (or know) by heart.” Early etymologies of the Latin verb recordari relate this word for recollection to cor “heart.”  Arnulf’s heart was troubled by his memories of his life prior to his conversion—a dilemma that must have been common among the Cistercian brothers. In Bernard’s own writings, he shows a very special concern with the need “to purify the memory and pump out the cesspit” while still maintaining the ability of recollection that preserves the words of scripture and desire for God.