Letters13 Letter XIII. To the Lord pope Honorius (A.D. 1126)
Letter XIII. To the Lord pope Honorius (A.D. 1126)
He begs that the election of Albert to the See of Chalons-sur-Marne may be ratified.
To the supreme Pontiff Honorius, a certain brother, a monk by profession, and by his life a sinner, sends his humble duty.
It is said that over you the prayer of a poor man has more power than the will of the powerful. The thought of this singular nobleness in you, as well as the suggestion of charity, impels me to write without fear to your Highness. 1 speak to you, my lord, with regard to the Church of LETTER XIV.
Chalons, and I neither am able, nor ought I, to conceal from you as far as my ability extends, the danger to which it is exposed. In fact, being in its neighbourhood, I feel already that the peace of this Church will speedily be profoundly troubled, if your Holiness should not be able to assent to the election of that distinguished man, that is, of Magister Alberic, which has united the suffrages of the whole clergy and the people in an equal vote. On that subject, if you should deign to inquire or to care for my opinion, I would say that that man is of a faith irreproachable, that his doctrine is sound, and that he has shown prudence both in divine and human things; and I hope that in the House of God (if by Him he should be chosen) he would be a vessel of honour, and would be of service not only to that house,, but to the whole of the Gallican Church. It is now for your wisdom to judge, whether I am right in asking from you the giving of a dispensation from which such good effects may be expected.
Summo pontifici HONORIO, frater quidam professione monachus, conversatione peccator, se ipsum quantillus est.
Aiunt apud vos plus valere pauperis precem, quam potentis vultum. De qua vestra singulari dignatione tam sancta opinio facit me dignitatis celsitudinem non vereri, quo minus audeam loqui ad vos, id praesertim quod charitas suggerit. De Ecclesia dico, domine, Catalaunensi, cujus, quantum in me est, nec valeo, nec debeo dissimulare periculum. Videmus nimirum, jamjamque imminere sentimus, nos qui vicini sumus, pacem videlicet memoratae Ecclesiae graviter mox esse turbandam, si electioni illustris illius viri, id est, magistri Alberici, in quam utique totus tam clerus, quam populus pari voto et voce convenerant et conveniunt, vestrae pietatis assensum impetrare nequiverint. De qua re si et nostra quaeritur aut curatur sententia, novimus hominem sanae fidei et doctrinae hactenus exstitisse; in divinis pariter et humanis prudentem esse; et speramus in domo Dei (si tamen ipse elegit eum) fore vas in honorem, et utilem futurum non solum illi, sed et omni Gallicanae Ecclesiae. Vestrae jam discretionis est judicare, an merito flagitetur a vobis facienda dispensatio, unde talis potest sperari recompensatio.