The site was five acres, and the building is described in the letters patent " as a fitting and noble college mansion in honour of the most glorious Virgin Mary and St Bernard in Northgates Street outside the Northgate of Oxford."
Farther west came the roads over the higher Alpine passes the Brenner from Verona, the Septimer and the Splugen from Clavenna (Chiavenna), the Great and the Little St Bernard from Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), and the Mont Genvre from Augusta Taurinorum (Turin).
Asceticism is thus the counterpart of medieval mysticism; and, by his example as well as by his teaching in such passages, St Bernard unhappily encouraged practices which necessarily resulted in self-delusion.
But the greatest success was attained when St Bernard - no great believer in pilgrimages, and naturally disposed to doubt the policy of a second Crusade - was induced by the pope to become the preacher of the new movement.
France St Bernard added the king of Germany, when, in Christmas week of 1146, he induced Conrad III.
