Letters472 Letter CDLXXII

Brother G.[erhoch to Abbot Bernard.

To the venerable Abbot of Clairvaux, Brother G., health and the assurance of the prayers of a sinner, if they be of any service to a Saint. 1 1 This second letter treats of various matters. Gerhoch repeats in the first place a request, which he had already preferred to the Saint in a letter which has not been found. A plan worked out by Pope Eugenius when Abbot of Trois Fontaines for a division of clergy-funds by law and to prohibit all irregular sharing of them had not yet been introduced. He requests Bernard in the sense of his admonition which he gave to the Pope in his first letter to use the power of his sharp and living word on behalf of this important matter. He further says that the completion of the timely exposition of the Song of Solomon is desired by many. He also says there is current under Bernard’s name an Ascension Day Sermon, which not only contains strange expressions, but also teaches a christological error which Gerhoch repudiates, referring to Holy Scripture and a passage of Leo the Great. Should the sermon have come from Bernard, which the writer doubts, he advises it should be withdrawn;—if not, he advises that the fact should be distinctly declared, in honour to his other writings. He then again refers to the Babenberg controversy. He calls to mind that in the warfare there he was sustained only by the acquiescence of Innocent II. and hopes to get some definitive answer from Bernard on this presumably changed I wrote lately to your holiness, with respect to that community which the Roman Curia founded in the times of opinion. Finally, Gerhoch is like others astonished that Bernard should not have included a main error in the list of Abaelard’s heresies. To this second letter of Gerhoch so far as is known, no answer was ever sent by Bernard.

A law of Eugenius about division of clergy-funds was either already promulgated at the time of this letter or followed very soon after. The letter, which presupposes a personal intercourse of the Pope with Bernard, must fall in the spring of 1147 or 1148, when alone this condition prevailed. From the conclusion of the 4th book De Consideratione which belongs to the latter years of Bernard, it is clear that then at the beginning of the fifth decade of the century that early plan had become law. The purpose of this special canon does not seem to be known. The remarks concerning the sermo de Ascensione Domini Bernard settled by referring to his genuine sermons on the Ascension and Glory of the God-man; thereby proving that it was impossible for him to have originated the one in question. How the Saint would have replied to the request about his present opinion as to the schismatical sacrament remains an open question; his writings containing no help: the question perhaps would not have been satisfied in the end. Bernard would easily dispose of the last reference as it was grounded on an incomplete knowledge of the documents. His writing contra qucedam capitula errorum Abcslardi, which Gerhoch probably had before him, did not indeed contain the missing point of accusation. It was, however, included in his capitula hceresum P. Abcelardi, to which the first writing distinctly refers. The text of this letter of Gerhoch is taken from two MSS. which, but for some minor details, verbally agree. The one MS. is No. 22634 of the Additional MSS. in the British Museum, a Quarto belonging to the 2nd half of the 12th Century, written in columns of 36 lines each. The Codex contains 13 leaves of which this letter fills fols. 3b to 4a. A second copy cooevo codice Ottenburanom 4to is the so-called codexapogr. Mellicensis which has been brought forward by the well-known scholar Bernard Pez, and beside this letter contains two other works of Gerhoch of Reichersberg. (Hiiffer.) (E.)

Popes Celestine and Lucius of blessed memory, according as the then Abbot, now Pope, Eugenius advised. Whose counsel then was this, that the privilege should be confirmed; just as lawful favours should be distributed for the common advantage, but unlawful rejected with disapproval, great care being taken to use discretion, in the Roman Curia: respecting the details of which it is not for me to write to you, as your Prudence can easily learn through the lords Cardinals who had unanimously approved that determination, which was then proposed at the advice of your disciple then Abbot, but which now the same person, made your master and ours, proposes to subvert. But it is not becoming, that now he is Pope, he should destroy what then as Abbot, he began to build up. For perhaps it was for that reason that God raised him up, and gave to him, who was little in his own eyes, a great name, that now being Roman Pontiff he might bring to perfection what he had up to that time as Abbot counselled. I believe then that to that end he requires intimate advisers, of whom you, holy father, are believed to be the chief, because you speak in such manner in the first letter which you sent to that son of yours, then by so great an exaltation, become to you a father, as to strive to render him attentive and prompt to plant and to root up, to destroy and disperse as well as to build up. There is indeed in that letter of yours to which I refer, the word of God in its strength: but still more is there in your lips the word of God, living, and able to pierce even as a two-edged sword, and penetrating even to the division of soul and spirit (Heb. iv. 12). Wherefore it is greatly to be desired by us, that the same things which you have written, you should now urge upon him by word of mouth, and continue to press them upon him until success shall attend your persuasion. If you do not complete before your death the exposition you have begun of the Canticles your epithalamium will be turned into great mourning for many.

If a certain sermon on the Ascension of Our Lord is from your pen, as it is said to be, it will be worth while for you to examine it diligently, and if it shall seem good to your prudence, to modify it in part. For there it is said that a follower of the Lord, whom the Father Augustine lays down should be called the Lord rather than one of his followers, holds in heaven that place in which Lucifer would have been placed, if he had not fallen but had stood fast in the truth. But we believe and therefore also speak (2 Cor. iv. 13) that the Man born from the Virgin Mother is truly called, and is, the Most High,, not only in the Nature of the Word which is always the Most High, but also in His Human Nature, which is exalted even to sit (at the Right Hand of) God the Father, according to that saying: A Man was born in her, and the Most High shall stablish her (Ps. lxxxvii. 5). Which exaltation, that we should not take it to be attributed in Christ only to the Person, Pope Leo attributes to the Human Nature, saying in his sermon on the Lord’s Ascension: “Great and unspeakable was the cause of rejoicing, when the Nature of the human race ascended, in the sight of the saintly host, above the dignity of all the dwellers in Heaven, passing beyond the ranks of the Angels, nor placing any bound to its progress in those lofty heights, until it was received at the Right Hand of the Eternal Father, and associated with His throne of glory, to whose nature it was united in His Son.” Since 1 The pious author seems to have meant encomium or panegyric. The use of epithalamium in this sense is without precedent. (E*)

2 Supergressura or supergressa Mellic.

then that sermon of yours to which I have referred, holy father, does not agree with this sermon emanating from the Apostolic See, you will do well to retract the same, if it is yours, or to declare that it is not from your pen, that the rest of your most excellent writings may not be dishonoured thereby; if those things which are there wrongly expressed, as it appears to many persons, should either be not corrected, or (not) shown to be not written by you., For this would be shown in a fitting manner, if another sermon should be put forth by you, holy father, on the Ascension of Our Lord, in which the subject of (His) Human Nature being, although not changed into the Divine Nature, yet exalted into the glory of God should be so treated, as is fitting. He said: Glorify Me, 0 Father, with Thine own self {S. John xvii. 5) and the Father replied: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again (Ibid. xii. 28). Perhaps it has been reserved for thee, O Abbot of Clairvaux, to declare in clear language, something of His glory, for which you too shall be glorified in a dwelling of light and peace. Would that I may see your writings on this subject of His glorification, which if you are not able for the present to complete at full length, at least, holy father, make known to me, a sinner, in few words your meaning, which is, I doubt not, most sound and correct. For even if in anything you were otherwise minded, when you wrote the sermon referred to, God has since revealed to you, that which then was hidden. 1 I have once betaken myself to the oracle of Divine know-edge, and I hope not to cease my knocking, until the door be opened to my summons; and although not because I am a friend, yet because of my importunity which pro- The text has non velatum but according to the context’ this must be an error. (E.)

ceeds not from rashness but from necessity (S. Luke xi. 8). For your fatherly piety may remember, what a struggle with impiety I sustained in the Court at Babenberg for him, because I said that those sacrificing without the Church, or within it, having been deprived of their office do not produce the Body of the Lord. In truth if Pope Innocent had not supported me, or rather if the Lord had not been with us, when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up even living (Ps. cxxiv. 1—3). Of necessity then I have enquired your meaning upon this subject, which then you will find that I remember well. For I do not doubt that you are of those of whom the Apostle says: If anything ye be otherwise minded, the Lord shall reveal even this to you (Phil. iii. 15); and I entreat your piety, that briefly, and with the crumbs falling from your table, you will indulge me, in my hunger, so that I may know what you now think about this matter. I wonder greatly, holy father, that in the List of Heresies of Abaelard, you have passed over this, which he asserted both his words and writings, that the man who was born of the Virgin is to be called God * and that Christ is to be called God not properly but figuratively, not on account of His whole self but on account of part only, since there is nothing in which he, perverse as he is, is found to have erred more perversely than this. From this you may understand that it is desired by many that light should shine forth from your lips against that cloud of falseness.

' Conficere.

2 Dominum: is the reading of the London MS.

, LETTER CDLXXIII.

To the Archbishop of Treves.

To the venerable lord and very dear father AIbero, by the Grace of God, Archbishop of Treves and legate of the Apostolic See, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes health, and that he may find grace before God.

You comply with my wishes if I seek those things which are my own:: how much more ought you to do so, if I seek not my own advantage, but that of Jesus Christ but those things which are Christ’s are mine also, for He is our Brother and our flesh. And my [salvation is in the mercy of Christ, who bore my injuries unto death, even the death of the Cross. The servant is not greater than his Lord. I consider no part of His reproach as alien to me, since He on my account, was made the reproach of men and the offscouring of the people. I lament His condition, who lamented mine, and gave up His own self for me.

God has sent women into your heritage: they have polluted your holy temple: I speak of the Church of S. Maur at Verdun. Lo the heritage of the Lord, the very heritage, itself a temple, but a temple polluted, is violated by a double sacrilege. They have withdrawn that which is sacred from its sacred place: that is, they have alienated their own selves from Christ. Holiness becomes Thy House, O Lord; but the House of Prayer has been turned into a den of thieves and of fornication. The place of the habitation of Thy glory, has become a lair for dragons: and no man lays this to heart. Is this then pleasing to you, that God should suffer the loss of His heritage in your diocese and in your time? Do you then render to Him evil for good? God has exalted you above your companions: stand up in defence of that which is His. If you say, How does the matter concern me? in what way do you profit by that opinion? for without doubt he is blameable for an evil action who is able to correct it, and neglects to do so. The Virgin of Israel has fallen to the earth: but cannot one who falls be helped to rise again? Put on a kindly willingness: stretch forth your hand; if you are the friend of the Bridegroom, draw forth the Bride of Christ from the abyss of misery, and the mire of pollution. Use your influence by letters with these people that they may acquiesce in the election which has been made by those to whom the election was entrusted to be carried out, for otherwise there will be confusion both as to the person elected, and as to those by whom the election was made, and to the whole Church of Rheims whose daughter it is. Otherwise if you do not influence them by your threats and entreaties, I assure you that your reputation will be in great danger in these parts. But I do not venture to judge of your conscience. May the Spirit of Truth teach you to discover the evil and to choose the good.