Letters5 Letter V. To a monk Adam. (A.D. 1125)
Letter V. To a monk Adam. (A.D. 1125)
Bernard exhorts him not to adhere to Arnold, the Abbot of Morimond, nor make himself the companion of his journey, or rather wandering.
1. Your humility, which is well known to me, and the circumstances of peril in which you stand, oblige me to address you earnestly and reprehend you in plain words. O, foolish one! who has bewitched you to withdraw so hastily from the salutary rule of life in which you equally with me (God is witness) were lately agreed? Consider your ways, O foolish one, and turn your steps towards the testimonies of the Lord. Do you not remember that you first dedicated the first fruits of your conversion at Marmoutiers then that you were put under my poor direction at Foigny, and that you made your final profession at Morimond? Was it not there again that at my suggestion you frankly renounced the journeying, or rather wandering, suggested to you by Abbot Arnold, and you saw clearly that company with him was forbidden to you if he himself was not able to go forth lawfully? What then? Can you say that he departs in a lawful manner who has left a lamentable scandal amongst those committed to him, not waiting for the licence of his superior?
2. But to what purpose, you may ask, are all these details? That I may show you your manifest inconstancy; that I may show you clearly that you say both Yes and No; that I may force you to recognize and blush for your errors, and to learn, though late, from the Apostle that we must not believe every spirit (i S. John iv. i). Learn from Solomon to have many friends, but to choose one counsellor among a thousand (Ecclus. vi. 6); learn from the example of the Forerunner of the Lord not to wear soft clothing nor to be blown about with every wind of doctrine, like a reed shaken with the wind (S. Matt. xi. 7, 8); learn from the Gospel to build thy house upon a rock (S. Matt. vii. 24); learn also with the disciples not to forget the wisdom of the serpent with the simplicity of the dove (S. Matt. x. 16); and both from these as from a great many other testimonies of Scripture you may get to understand how greatly that seducer has deceived you, who, since he was not able to arrest the beginning of good in you, envied your perseverance, considering without doubt that it would be sufficient for his malicious purpose if he could take away from you this one and only virtue which would assure you the crown. I beg you, therefore, by the bowels of the mercy of Christ, that you wander abroad no more, or at least not before you come to speak with me at a place convenient to us both, and consider what remedy may be found for the very great evils which from your departure we either feel have happened or feel will happen. Farewell.
1. Tua mihi satis comperta humilitas, et instantis periculi necessitas praebet mihi fiduciam conveniendi te acrius, et arguendi liberius. O insensate! quis te fascinavit tam cito recedere ab illo saluberrimo consilio, in quo dudum tibi pariter et mihi, Deo solo teste, conventum est? Cogita, insipiens, vias tuas, et converte pedes tuos in testimonia Domini. Non recordaris, quod primo in Majori-Monasterio tuae conversionis initia dedicasti; secundo apud Fusniacum, nostrae te qualicumque providentiae commendasti; tertio in Morimundo stabilitatem tuam firmasti; quarto mecum rursus inito consilio, suggestae tibi ab abbate Arnoldo peregrinationi, imo vagationi, ingenue abrenuntiasti; ipsius quoque tibi consortium, si non ipse licite posset abire, illicitum judicasti? Quid enim? Licitene, dices, illum recedere, qui et sibi commissis lacrymabile scandalum reliquit, nec commissoris licentiam exspectavit?
2. Sed quorsum, inquies, tendunt haec, quae sic retractare voluisti? Ut te manifestae levitatis arguam, ut Est et Non esse apud te evidenter ostendam: sicque errorem tuum jam tandem agnoscens et erubescens, vel sero discas ab apostolo, non omni spiritui credere; discas a Salomone multos quidem amicos, unum autem habere consiliarium de mille; discas Praecursoris Domini exemplo, non solum mollibus non vestiri, sed nec in modum vento agitatae arundinis circumferri omni vento doctrinae; discas ex Evangelio domum tuam supra petram fundare; discas et cum discipulis serpentis non oblivisci prudentiam cum simplicitate columbae: et tam ex his, quam ex aliis atque aliis Scripturarum testimoniis hanc colligas summam, quantum tibi videlicet usque modo milleformis ille seductor illusit, qui cum in te boni initium non valuit praepedire, invidit perseverantiae: hoc nimirum suae posse sufficere malitiae judicans, si hanc posset auferre tibi, quam solam virtutum noverat coronari. Obsecro te per viscera misericordiae Christi, ut nullatenus abeas, aut vel non priusquam ad nos loco quidem opportuno venias loqui, si quod forte tantis malis, quae jam nobis ex vestra discessione, aut venisse sentimus, aut ventura metuimus, queat remedium inveniri. Vale.