Letters67 Letter LXVII. To the monks of Flay. (Circa A.D. 1125)
Letter LXVII. To the monks of Flay. (Circa A.D. 1125)
He justifies his reception of B., a monk, as being from a monastery entirely unknown to him, and having just causes for his departure.
To Dom H., Superior of the Convent of Flay, and to the brethren who are with him, the brethren in Clairvaux wish health.
1. We learn by your letter that your Reverence is aggrieved because we have received one of your monks among us. I also am much grieved, fearing that this grief of yours be not that whereof the. Apostle said: Ye were made sorry according to God (2 Cor. vii. 9). For if it had been according to God it would not have so provoked you, and you would not have shown so much bitterness and violence in the reproaches which you make to us, the first time that you write to us, since although we are unknown to you, and we have never yet held communication by speech or by letter, we are none the less your brethren, and if you permit me to say so, even your friends. You wonder, as you write us, that we have received Brother Benedict among us, and you address threats to us unless we immediately send him back. You remind us that the Rule forbids a monk to be received from a known monastery, and you are no doubt persuaded that yours is not unknown. But what if it is known to others, provided that it is not known to us? Even although, as you tell me, the reputation of your community has so spread that the history of your church is known even at Rome; yet it has, I know not how, so passed over us, who are a long way this side of Rome, that we have never heard speak of you the least in the world, neither of your abbot nor of your monks, nor of the very name of your house, nor have we the least knowledge of the sanctity of your life up to the present time. Nor is that wonderful, considering that we are separated from each other by a long distance, by different provinces, and by difference of language. Not only are we not residing in the same diocese, but we do not belong to the same archbishopric. We think, then, that we are prohibited from receiving monks only from monasteries which are known to us, and not from those which others know; otherwise, since there is no monastery which is not known to somebody, not one would be left from which monks might properly be received. How, then, would that be fulfilled which was permitted and even ordered by the blessed Benedict, that a stranger monk ought not only to be received as a guest, as long as he pleases to remain, but also to be urged to remain permanently, if he is found useful to the community?
2. We, nevertheless, took another course with regard to the brother before mentioned. For when he came humbly praying to be received by us he was at first repulsed, and then bidden to return to his own monastery. But he not being willing to do this, betook himself to a hermitage near us, and there dwelt quietly almost seven months, without any evil report of him arising. But not thinking it safe for himself to live alone, he was not ashamed, after this first repulse, to ask of us again what he had asked before. We a second time admonished him about his return, and when we inquired the cause of his departure he said: "My abbot treated me not as a monk but as a physician. He obliged me to serve, or rather he himself served by means of me, not God, but the world; since, in order not to incur the ill-will of secular princes, he used to compel me to give medical care to tyrants, robbers, and excommunicate. I declared to him both in public and in private the peril which my soul incurred; but as this was to no purpose, I at length, relying on the advice of certain wise men, fled from the destruction of my soul, not from religion or from my community. Do not reject one who seeks salvation, open the door to one who knocks." At the sight of his perseverance, having heard his reason, and knowing no ill of him, we granted him admission; we approved him after his time of probation, we admitted him to make profession, and now we consider him as one of us. We did not compel him to enter, and now we will not oblige him to depart. And if we should drive him out he would not (as he asserts) return to you, but would fly still farther from you. Cease then, brethren, to persecute unoffending people with unmerited reproaches, and to trouble them with useless letters, because we will not be provoked even by reiterated insults to reply to you otherwise than with respect; nor will we be terrified into not keeping among us a monk whom we believe that we have received according to the Rule.
Domino H. Patri Flaviacesnis ecclesiae, et fratribus qui cum eo sunt, fratres qui in Clara-Valle sunt, salutem.
1. Lectis litteris vestris, vestram Reverentiam propter quemdam monachum qui apud nos est, contristatam cognovimns. De qua vestra tristitia nos quoque contristati sumus, timentes ne non sit illa tristitia, de qua quibusdam dicebat Apostolus: Contristati enim estis secundum Deum. Nam si secundum Deum esset, non usque adeo vos commovisset, ut nos, etsi vobis ignotos, fratres tamen vestros, et si placet amicos, quos necdum vel praesentes verbo conveneratis, vel absentes scripto praemonueratis, hac prima vice tam subito, tam acriter argueretis. Miramini, ut scribitis, quod fratrem Benedictum suscepimus; minamini nisi eum vobis cito restituerimus. Proponitis nobis de Regula, de noto monasterio monachum non suscipiendum, pro constanti scilicet habentes vestrum non esse ignotum. Sed quid si aliis notum, dummodo nobis ignotum sit? Etsi enim, ut verba ipsa vestra ponam, religionis vestrae se adeo fama effuderit, ut etiam Romae ecclesiae vestrae habeatur notitia, nos tamen, qui utique multum citra Romam positi sumus, nescio quo pacto ita praeteriit, ut ne uniusquidem vestrum, abbatis scilicet vel monachorum, non ipsius vestrae habitationis, non religionis ac conversationis, usque ad hoc tempus vel tenuem notitiam habuerimus, sed nec aliquam aliquando mentionem nobis de vobis factam fuisse meminimus. Nec tamen mirum, quia et multis terrarum spatiis, et diversis provinciis, et dissimilibus linguis ad invicem distamus; nec solum episcopatibus propriis absumus, sed etiam in eodem archiopiscopatu non degimus. Putamus autem quod non de cuicumque notis, sed tantum de nobis notis monasteriis monachos suscipere prohibemur; alioquin, cum nullum monasterium sit quod alicui notum non sit, nullum nobis relinquitur de quo quis regulariter suscipiatur. Quomodo ergo illud implebitur quod a beato Benedicto vel praecipitur vel permittitur, peregrinum videlicet monachum non solum debere suscipi ad habitandum pro hospite, quanto cupit tempore, sed etiam inventum utilem suaderi ad manendum omni tempore?
2. Quanquam tamen nos aliter erga praedictum fratrem egerimus Nam cum veniens se suscipi a nobis humiliter postularet, primo quidem repulsus, deinde admonitus est ut ad monasterium suum rediret. Sed ille non acquiescens, in vicinam nobis eremum se contulit, ibique septem ferme menses, nullam interim calumniam passus, quiete habitavit. Sed cum sibi tutum non crederet quod solus degeret, post primam repulsam, idipsum quod prius a nobis requirere non erubuit. Rursus nos admonentes eum de reditu, cum causam suae ab eo discessionis inquireremus: « Abbas, inquit, meus habebat me non monachum, sed medicum. Cogebat servire, imo ipse serviebat per me, non Deo, sed saeculo, quando, ne saecularium malevolentiam incurreret principum, mederi me compellebat etiam tyrannis, raptoribus, excommunicatis. Quod animae meae periculum cum ei nunc privatim nunc palam suggessisscm, nec profecissem, quorumdam tandem sapientium virorum consilio fretus, fugio meam damnationem, non congregationem, perditionem, non religionem. Consulite salutem quaerenti, aperite pulsanti. » Cujus nos videntes constantiam, audientes causam, et nullam contra eum calumniam, annuimus introitum, probavimus susceptum, adstrinximus probatum, tenemus professum. Nec intrare compulimus, nec exire cogemus. Quamvis si eum ejiceremns, ad vos (ut ipse asserit) non rediret, sed magis se adhuc a vobis elongaret. Desinite ergo, fratres, desinite tam indebitis innoxios lacessere jurgiis, et cassis scriptitationibus inquietare: quia nec cumulatis etiam contumeliis provocari poterimus ut vobis, nisi quod reverentiae est, respondeamus, nec minis exterreri quominus monachum teneamus, quem regulariter suscepisse nos credimus.