Letters261 Letter CCLXI. To pope Eugenius.
Letter CCLXI. To pope Eugenius.
Bernard prays the Pope to absolve the Abbot of S.
Urbain, who had been subjected to censure. One of the Knights of the Temple wished to become a monk of our Order, and found amongst us some to join him in his wish. But since they dared not, contrary to Rules, receive him within their walls, they took him secretly to a certain Abbey which is called Vaux, telling and suggesting to the Abbot to cause to be given to the man a black habit of some other Order of monks, and then they would receive him and give him ours. And so it was done. The matter became known to me, and was brought by me before the Chapter, and by the decision of the Chapter that brother was expelled. But the Templars, not content with this, brought letters from your Majesty to the Bishop of Chalons by which he was to suspend the Abbot of S. Urbain, who had given the soldier the habit, from entering the Church till he should have presented himself before you. Thence it is that the Abbot of Vaux, at whose request he did this without suspecting anything wrong, was forced in great trouble of mind to send to implore your mercy the brother who bears this letter, in order that he who was entangled by him might by him be set free, if that is to say he as well as we, your children, may win this boon from your Paternity.
Unus de militibus Templi voluit monachari in Ordine nostro: nec defuerunt de nostris, qui ei in tali voluntate assentirent. Sed cum non auderent eum in suis claustris recipere, quoniam non licebat, occulte eum duxerunt ad quamdam abbatiam, quae dicitur Vallis, mandantes et suggerentes abbati, ut nigrum habitum de alio Ordine monachorum faceret ei tradi; et sic eum reciperent, nostrumque illi darent. Et factum est ita. Res nobis innotuit, et per nos delata ad capitulum est. Capituli decreto frater ille foras missus est. At fratres de Templo minime hoc contenti, litteras nihilominus a vestra majestate episcopo Catalaunensi attulerunt, quibus abbatem Sancti Urbani (nam is est qui militi habitum tradiderat) ab introitu ecclesiae suspenderet, donec se vestro conspectui praesentaret. Inde est quod abbas de Vallibus, quo rogante ille hoc fecit, nil mali suspicatus, compulsus est in magna anxietate animi fratrem latorem praesentium mittere ad pedes misericordiae vestrae, ut qui per eum intricatus est, per eum expediatur: si tamen hoc tam ipse, quam etiam nos alii filii vestri, a vestra sancta Paternitate potuerimus promereri.