Letters169 Letter CLXIX. To pope innocent, on the same subject (A.D. 1138)
Letter CLXIX. To pope innocent, on the same subject (A.D. 1138)
Bernard explains why he has detained the clergy of Langrcs who had been summoned to Rome; and indicates the persons to whom the election should be confided.
Your condescension has admitted me to intimacy, and that intimacy has made me to presume. Let your wonted kindness rule in your heart, lest haply my presumption breed indignation. Yet hear patiently not only what I have done, but why I did it; perhaps the cause may in some way excuse the deed. I ventured to keep back the clergy of Langres who had been summoned to appear before you, since peace had been made between them, and they had been persuaded to act for the future in holding the election according to your will and the counsel of good men, even.as it is written in their letters. Moreover there was great necessity for their not leaving just now, because of the lands and possessions of the Church, which are given over to be plundered and stolen, while there is none to guard or defend them. And so, if it please you, let an order be given to these men, since they are no longer under suspicion, and since they seek not the things that are their own, but those of Christ Jesus, that they elect one who may be pleasing to God, that so this long-standing and unhappy trouble of the Church may find at length its ending. What else remains to be said I have com- <D * mitted to Herbert, Abbot of S. Stephen's of Dijon, and to the Archdeacon of Langres, and their companions. I add, moreover, a prayer that you would receive under your protection the Archdeacon of Langres and Bonami, presbyter of the same Church, since they have shown themselves faithful in God's cause. For the workman is worthy of his hire (S. Luke x. 7).
Dignatio vestra fecit me familiarem, familiaritas praesumptorem. Adsit solita cordi vestro benignitas, ne forte praesumptio pariat indignationem. Audite tamen patienter, non solum quid egerim sed et cur egerim: si forte causa factum possit vel aliquatenus excusare. Ausus sum retinere clericos Lingonenses qui vocati erant, composita tamen pace inter eos: ipsisque persuasis stare deinceps de facienda electione in beneplacito vestro et consilio bonorum, sicut in litteris eorum continetur. Erat autem pernecessarium eos hac vice remanere, propter terras et possessiones Ecclesiae, quae datae sunt praedae et direptioni, dum non est qui custodiat aut defendat. Itaque personis quae non sint suspectae, quae non quaerant quae sua sunt, sed quae Jesu Christi, injungatur, si placet, cura eligendi qui Deo placeat et finem tandem accipiat Ecclesiae tam diuturna et miseranda vexatio. Reliqua vero dicenda commisimus domino Herberto abbati Sancti-Stephani Divionensis, et archidiacono Lingonensi, sociisque eorum. Adjicimus etiam, ut archidiaconum Lingonensem, et Bonum Amicum ejusdem ecclesiae presbyterum, quoniam fideles in causa Dei exstiterunt, eos et res eorum in defensione vestra recipiatis. Dignus est enim operarius mercede sua.