Letters400 Letter CD. To the Abbot of Liesse. 1

He begs that Brother Robert may be received and kindly treated: and enquires respecting the Abbot's health.

To the venerable father of the monastery at Liesse, and to his sons, Brother Bernard, the unprofitable servant of the servants of God who are at Clairvaux, health and prayer that they may serve the Lord with fear and rejoice unto Him with trembling.

I send back brother Robert; entreating for him and with him, in the first place, that he may be welcomed with a greater degree of kindness and clemency, than is ordibe compared with that of Abbot Theodomir, in a treatise of Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, against Claude of S. Taurin, about the pilgrimage of monks.

1 Some copies have Lesciensis. This was a Benedictine Abbey, on the borders of Hainault and Thierache, and already celebrated even at that time, by the cultivation of sacred literature, as we learn from Philip de Eleemosyna (Ep. 24. Bibliothec. Cisterc. Vol. hi.). It became. famous again at a later time by the piety and foundations of one of its Abbots. Louis de Blois. It was built up from the ground in 1080 by Thierry d’Avesne (Heriman in Spicileg. v. xii. p. 423). Gunther was the first Abbot; and after twelve years was succeeded by Reiner, who died 1124. Gedric followed as Abbot; he founded the library, and drew around him out of Hainault pious and learned men. It may have been Gedric to whom this letter was addressed. (Mabillon’s Note.)

The conjecture thus made is confirmed by the following observation of Edmund Martene: “Ep. 400 in the copy at S. Martin at Tours which is very ancient, is headed Epistola Bernardi ad Werricum (for which name it is easy to read Wedricum) Letiensem Abbatem." The name had not been known previously.

Letter CDI.

narily shown to returning fugitives. For the penalty ought not to be the same, where the [cause of the offence is different. In the next place, I earnestly request that he may be removed from the Obedience where he has been long constrained to stay, at the peril [as he says of his soul, and transferred to another house, where he may dwell more safely and happily. Otherwise, I fear that you may lose the man irrevocably, for I have penetrated his secret intentions.

I have heard that your Lord Abbot is dangerously ill; and am most desirous to hear how matters are with him, whether tending towards life or death, and to rejoice over his continuance in life, though it be mortal life, or grieve for his death, though the death be an entrance into life; or to speak more accurately, that I may experience in either case both joy and grief. For in the former, I shall condole indeed with him, because he is kept back from life, but rejoice with you, because he is preserved to us; while in the latter, I shall congratulate him on having attained his reward, even while I mourn with you on the loss of a friend so needful to us.