1505/32.The scene from c 1124 of the young knights converted over a drink of beer. A group of young knights came to Clairvaux close to Lent. Bernard greeted them and asked them to put down their weapons for a while, but they refused. He called one of the brothers and bade him serve them beer which Bernard blessed before offering it to them which they then drank, although some of them reluctantly. They left the abbey but after a while they returned and asked to be received into the novitiate thus 'offering their hand for the Knighthood of the Spirit' and, the 'Vita Prima' goes on, 'some of them are militant in God's service still to this day'. The story is here depicted in two scenes, clearly separated by the column in the middle. On the left the knights, still on their horses, are welcomed by Bernard who has a crozier in his right hand and with his left hand blesses the beer carried by a lay brother, identified by the beard and distinctive fringed hair as opposed to the monastic tonsure. He has a flask in his left hand and a beaker in his right hand which he is offering to one of the knights. The scroll has the words of Bernard: 'Drink the drink of the soul. I am confident in the Lord that he will grant me the truce you deny'. On the right the knights have returned and Bernard, standing in a doorway and with his crozier held by one of his monks, is clothing a kneeling knight, identified by his spurs, with the Cistercian habit.
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