Letters338 Letter CCCXXXVIII. To Haimeric, Cardinal and Chancellor (A.D. 1140)

He urges that Peter Abaelard, having been convicted of heresy, ought not to find the abodes of the Cardinals and the Roman Curia open to him as a refuge.

To his illustrious and very intimate friend HAIMERIC, Cardinal-deacon and Chancellor of the holy Roman Church, BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, desires that he may act wisely before God and before men.

1. I have both heard of the opinions of Magister Peter Abaelard, and I have seen his books. I have remarked his words, 1 have taken note of the hidden senses (mysteria of them, and found them to be mysteries of iniquity. This divine contradicts the Law in the very words of the Law. He casts that which is holy to the dogs, and pearls before swine; he corrupts the faith of the simple, defiles the purity of the Church. It is said that "the vase will long preserve the odour with which it has once been imbued/' His book had passed through the fire, and was brought into a place of refreshment. The enemy of the Church reposes in the bosom of the Church, the persecutor of the faith finds in it an asylum. He was utterly conquered. Let him not rise again (it is said) who has invaded the couch of his father and defiled it! Now that man has dishonoured the Church, and infected with his vices the minds of the simple. He endeavours to scrutinize by the light of his reason alone, the mysteries which are apprehended by the pious mind only by the intuition of faith: the faith of the pious, which believes and does not discuss. But that man holds even God in suspicion, nor is willing to believe anything unless he shall have first considered it by reason. Though the Prophet says, If you will not believe, re shall not understand (Is. vii. 9, Ixx. version), that man blames spontaneous faith as mere credulity, making an ill use of that saying of Solomon: He that is hasty to give credit is light-minded (Ecclus. xix. 4). He blames, then, the B.V. Mary for believing without hesitation the word of the angel which announced to her: Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a Son (S. Luke i. 31). Let him blame also him who at the last hour, almost the last moment, of life, believed the words spoken to him by One who was dying likewise: To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise (S. Luke xxiii. 43); and let him reserve his praise for those, the hardness of whose hearts merited the reproach spoken of them: O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken (S. Luke xxiv. 25), and commend also the slowness of belief in him, to whom it was said: Because thou hast not believed My words, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak (S. Luke i. 20).

2. Finally, in order to abbreviate a multitude of observations into the strait limits of a letter, I will say shortly, that this admirable Doctor with Arius distinguishes degrees and inequalities in the Trinity; with Pelagius prefers free will to grace; with Nestorius divides Christ by excluding His Humanity from the fellowship of the Trinity. But in all these matters he boasts that he has opened the fountains of knowledge to the Cardinals and ecclesiastics of the Curia; that his books are in the hands, and his opinions in the minds, of the Romans; and he relies on those persons, by whom he ought to be judged and condemned, being a protection to him. Hyacinth has shown me much ill-will, but has done me no harm; simply because he was unable. ' his I endure with equanimity, since he spares not Rome, nor the Curia, nor even the person of the Pope. What else I have seen and heard, my dear Nicholas, who is equally devoted to you as to me, will tell you better by word of mouth.