Letters340 Letter CCCXL. To the same pope innocent. (Circa A.D. 1140)
Letter CCCXL. To the same pope innocent. (Circa A.D. 1140)
On behalf of the Bishop of Angers.
To his very dear father and lord, INNOCENT, by the grace of God supreme Pontiff, BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, sends his respectful homage.
The Bishop of Angers is worn out by his age as also by the labours and perils he has endured: who can look upon him with an indifferent eye, that is not destitute of sensibility, and even of any human feeling? As for me, I am not able, without feeling myself deeply moved, to look at this aged man, to whom but a single reproach could be addressed, whose life and whose learning render him venerable. 1 am ignorant of what has passed between him and the Abbey with which he is at variance, and I do not presume to write anything respecting a matter I am not acquainted with. But if it shall appear that he has fulfilled his engagements, I suppose that there is no other course to be taken than to restore him to your favour and to the exercise of his functions.
Amantissimo domino et patri, Dei gratia summo Pontifici INNOCENTIO, BERNARDUS Clarae-Vallensis abbas, modicum id quod est.
Fractus jam aetate, laboribus, periculis, Andegavensis episcopus, cujus pectus non moveat, nisi ejus qui viscera misericordiae, qui omnem humanitatis exuit affectum? Haec me movent pro homine illo, cujus senectutem, si unum excipitur factum, venerabilem facit et vita et scientia. De quo quoniam quid peractum sit inter ipsum et abbatiam, nondum cognovimus, nihil scribere praesumimus de re incognita. Sed, si constiterit eum fecisse quod promisit, nihil jam superesse credimus, nisi ut plenitudini gratiae et officii sui restituatur.