Letters33 Letter XXXIII. To Hugo, abbot of Pontigny (Circa A.D. 1120)

He "writes more plainly his views about the reception of Drogo, and removes unfavourable suspicion from himself.

To his very dear brother, Hugo, Lord Abbot, Brother Bernard, of Clairvaux, health and all that he desires for himself.

1. In my former letter I, as far as I can understand from yours, wrote less clearly than I wished, or you understood it otherwise than you ought. When I spoke of the consequences that might follow to you from the reception of that monk, I truly feared, and fear still, as I wrote. But in writing to you thus I had no intention of persuading you or giving you advice; nor certainly, as you write, did I think that he ought to be sent back, since I have long known his very strong desire, and I ought rather to congratulate him that he has now accomplished it. But as his abbot, my intimate friend, and the Archbishop of Rheims required of me a letter pressingly demanding him back, in order that I might take off every suspicion from myself, if it were possible, I took pains to dictate as well as I could such a letter, in terms which would both satisfy them and forewarn you of the reproaches which would be made against you by them, by not concealing them from you. I believed that your sagacity would be able to understand my intention in that letter at once, especially when reading the note which you remember I placed at the end of it, that it should be read by you in the same spirit it was written by me. For after having set out the evils which not unreasonably I feared for you, I went on: "It is for you to see whether you prefer to endure all these things or to send him away; the matter does not concern me." These very words were used by me, or nearly these, and when I wrote thus at the end, how else could I secretly intimate to you that all that I had said previously was spoken by way of complaisance, not to say of pretence?

2. But as for what you have written, that I should have charged your messenger to say to the same monk, that if he wished to enter our Order his absolution should be privately obtained, I declare to you that it is not true. How could I suppose or hope that I could receive a monk from a monastery so well known to me, and whom I did not think that even you could retain without great scandal? But let it be so. Suppose that I envied you that monk, and desired to attract him to me; and that I was hoping or fancying that I might be able to do something towards obtaining his absolution. But is it for a moment to be believed that I should be willing to lay open this plan of mine which I had concocted against his own monastery to the very messenger whom you had sent to me? But to convince you that what you have believed hitherto concerning my affection towards you is well founded, I feel myself obliged, for you even more than for me, to redouble my efforts, as I have done up to the present, so that our friendship may not altogether be dissolved, but be made more close and strong. What can I say to you more? I, at least, could not believe you capable of such an action, as you have without ground suspected me of. Concerning another matter, your Blessedness knows that Count Theobald has received my letter of recommendation for Humbert, but he has not as yet replied to me. What you could do as to this your piety will best suggest, if you will have the kindness to consider the miserable state of a man unjustly stricken with exile.