Love came more naturally to Bernard of Clairvaux than did humility. The son of burgundian nobility, 'people of rank and dignity', Bernard attracted followers and exercised authority with an easy grace. After years of struggle in the monastery, he admitted that humility remained for him one of the hardest virtues to acquire. yet the uncompromising vehemence of his love for God drew him to embrace the discipline and to learn the humility which monastic tradition taught prepared him for the perfect love of God.