Letters197 Letter CXCVII. To pktkr, dean ok besanqon (A.D. 1141)

Bernard blames his injurious conduct towards the Abbot of Char lieu.

I hear such an account of the pilgrimage of the Abbot of Charlieu that I look upon him as already dead. Whatever danger threatens him, whatever suffering he has to.undergo, is (to my great grief) imputed to you most of all. I neither expected this, nor deserved it at your hands. I.thought you one thing, I find you another. Those who were present at the affair bear their testimony against you that you have not behaved in it straightforwardly or justly. And I partly believe it. For the Venerable Abbot of Beau- «vais- is by no means pleased with you. Do not, I implore you, do not persecute the servants of God, to whom you read that He said: He that toucheth you to udieth the apple.of my eye (Zach. ii. 8). Do not pluck up by the roots whatever good feeling I formerly had towards you. And write this, not because I love you not, but to take away whatever may cause me not to love you. For I tell you, as your friend, that it is not expedient for you nor for your Church that the Pope should hear how you have acted.