Letters216 Letter CCXVI. To the same (A.D. 1142)
Letter CCXVI. To the same (A.D. 1142)
He complains that Count Ralph, who had repudiated his wife and taken another, finds supporters in the Curia.
It is written: Whom God hath joined together let not man put asunder (S. Matt. xix. 6). Audacious men have arisen, and have not shrunk from disjoining those whom God has joined together. Nor is that all; they have gone farther, and joined together persons whom it is forbidden to unite, thus adding sin to sin. The sacred rites of the Church are violated, and alas! the robe of Christ is rent, and that, to crown the sorrow, by the hands of those who ought to have kept it whole. Thy friends and thy neighbours, O God, have come near and stood against Thee (Ps. xxxvii. 12, VULG.). For they who are transgressing Thy command are not foreigners, not strangers to Thy sanctuary, but they hold the place of those to whom was said: If ye love me keep My commandments (S. John xiv. 15). Count Ralph and his wife had been joined together by God through the ministers of the Church, and by the Church through God who had given such power unto men. Why did the Court disjoin those whom God had joined? And in so doing provision was made as was fitting for one thing only, viz., that the works of darkness should be done in darkness. For he who does wrong hates the light, and does not come into the light, that his works may be reproved by the light. What has Count Theobald deserved, what wrong has he done? If to love righteousness and hate iniquity be a sin, he cannot be excused. If it be a sin to render to the King the things which are the King's, and to God the things which are God's, he cannot be excused. If at your command he received the Archbishop of Bourges, this is his first and greatest sin. Lo! this is the crime which is laid at his door. They who render evil for good calumniate him because he follows the thing that good is. Many are calling to you from the depths of their hearts to visit with fitting punishment the wrong done to your son, and the oppression the Church is subjected to, and to restrain the workers of this wickedness with their leader, with whatever Apostolic force you wish and are able to put forth, that so their wickedness may descend upon their own head.
Scriptum est: Quod Deus conjunxit, homo non separet. Surrexerunt viri audaces, qui non timuerunt conjunctos a Deo contra Deum disjungere. Neque id solum, insuper et adjecerunt conjungere non conjungendos, addentes praevaricationem. Lacerantur sacra Ecclesiae, scinduntur, proh dolor! vestes Christi; idque, ad cumulum doloris, ab his a quibus resarciri debuerant. Amici tui, Deus, et proximi tui adversum te appropinquaverunt et steterunt. Nam qui mandatum tuum transgrediuntur, non sunt alieni, non sunt extranei a sanctuario tuo, sed eorum hodie locum tenent, quibus dixisti: Si diligitis me, mandata mea servate. Comitem Radulfum et uxorem ejus Deus conjunxerat per ministros Ecclesiae, et Ecclesia per Deum, qui dedit potestatem talem hominibus. Quomodo quos Ecclesia conjunxit, disjunxit camera? In quo facto illud solum convenienter provisum est, quod in tenebris facta sunt opera tenebrarum. Qui enim male agit, odit lucem, et non venit ad lucem, ut non arguantur opera ejus a luce. Quid meruit comes Theobaldus? quid peccavit homo ille? Si peccatum est quod diligit justitiam et odit iniquitatem, non potest excusari. Si peccatum est quod reddidit Regi quae regis sunt, et quae sunt Dei Deo, non potest excusari. Si archiepiscopum Bituricensem suscepit ad imperium vestrum, hoc est maximum et primum peccatum. En sanguis iste de manu ejus exquiritur! Qui retribuunt mala pro bonis, detrahunt ei, quoniam sequitur bonitatem. Multi clamant ad vos in toto corde suo, ut injuriam filii vestri et oppressionem Ecclesiae digna animadversione vindicetis, et artifices hujus sceleris cum ipso eorum capite, cui quidquid libuit, licuit, apostolico vigore coerceatis, ut in verticem ipsius iniquitas ejus descendat.