France and Burgundy, with the more or less helpful aid of the Norman dukes in England, had been very loyal to the interests of the Papacy.  When the schism of Anacletus II. arose in 1130, Innocent II., driven from Rome by the armed followers of Peter de Leon, found his way at once to the side of Louis VI.  There he found Bernard, and upon him he leaned from that time until the latter had hewed a road for him back to Rome through kings, prelates, statesmen, and intriguers, with the same unflinching steadfastness with which he had cut a way to the sunlight for his vines and vegetables in the Valley of Wormwood.  Bernard it was who persuaded Henry of England to side with Innocent, and it was he who stayed the revival of the question of investitures and won the Emperor to the Pope at Liege.  At the Council of Rheims in October 1131, Bernard was the central figure; and when the path was open for a return to Italy, the restored Pope took the abbot with him, leaving in return a rescript releasing Citeaux from tithes.  Bernard stayed in Italy until 1135, and left Innocent secure in Rome.

After a short period of peace at Clairvaux, he had to hurry off again to Italy on account of the defection of the influential monastery of Monte Casino to Anacletus.

Not long after his last return from Italy, Bernard met Pierre Abelard.  This brilliant and unfortunate man had incurred the charge of heresy, and at some time in the year 1139 Bernard was induced to meet and confer with him.  Nothing seems to have resulted from the conference, for Abelard went in 1140 to the Bishop of Sens and demanded an opportunity of being confronted with Bernard at an approaching synod.  The abbot of Clairvaux, although unwilling, was at last persuaded to accept the challenge.  Louis VII., King of France, Count Theobald of Champagne, and the nobles of the realm assembled to witness the notable contest.  Abelard came with a brilliant following; but on the second day of the synod, to the surprise of everybody, he abruptly closed the proceeding by appealing to Rome.  The works of Abelard were condemned, but his appeal and person were respected, and Bernard prepared a strong condemnatory letter to be sent to the Pope.  As the great scholar was on his way to Rome to follow his appeal, he stayed to rest at Cluny with Peter the Venerable, who persuaded him to go to Bernard.  When the two great hearts met in the quiet of Clairvaux, all animosities were resolved in peace; and Abelard, returning to Cluny, abandoned his appeal and observed the rule of the house until his death, which he endured, as Peter the Venerable wrote to Heloise, fully prepared and comforted, at Chalons in 1142.