Letters126 Letter CXXVI. To the bishops of Aquitaine, against Gerard of Angouleme. (A.D. 1131)

He nobly defends the cause of Innocent as the rightful Pope, against Gerard of Angouleme, who was taking part with the Schismatic. He gives a picture of his character, and exposes his subterfuges.

To his Lords and Reverend Fathers, the holy Bishops, until Innocent. Nor was he wanting in zeal, for, if we can believe William of Malmesbury (History of the Kings of England, Book v.), he had ths courage to accuse William, Prince of Aquitaine, who was disregarding the laws of marriage, as being another Herod. But John Besle contends that this was a calumny against Count William (History o/' the Counts of Poitiers, chap. 32). Pope Innocent having refused to Gerard the commission of Legate, he shame fully abandoned the party of that Pope and adhered to that of Anacktus, who granted to him the title as a bribe, and proceeded to act, not as a Legate, but as a disperser, drawing all those whom he could influence to the party of the schismatic. That is the reason why Bernard warns the neighbouring Bishops of Aquitaine to disregard the voice of the seducer, and to follow Innocent, their legitimate Pastor. He lays before them these grounds of his right, viz.: "The high character of the person elected, the priority of his election, and the solemnity of his consecration." Yet there were not wanting some persons who upheld the right of Anacletus, and who brought forward arguments upon the other side, as appears from the Letter of Peter, Bishop of Portus, the author and defender of the consecration of this man, to William, Bishop of Praencste; to Matthew, Bbhop of Albano; to Conrad, Bishop of Sabina; and to John, Bishop of Ostia. who all followed the party of Innocent. This Letter is reported by William of Malmesbury (His/oria Novella, Book i.) The party of Innocent, however, prevailed; all the chief leaders, whether ecclesiastical, except Gerard of Angouleme, and a few others, or secular (if William, Count of Poitiers, and Roger, King of Sicily, be excepted), taking his side. But as for Gerard, he was obstinate in his defence of the schism, and he died unhappily in 1136, according to Ordericns. Ernald has related his death in the Life of S. Bernard, Book ii., chap. 7. But it has been thought by some that this author, by too great zeal for religion, has invented many things against Gerard, as that he died suddenly and impenitent without confession and viaticum, and he adds that his body was found lifeless on his bed and enormously swollen, and other details of the same kind unworthy of a serious writer. Those who judge thus rely upon the Gesta Episcoporum Engolismensium, in which it is said: '' On the day before his death he said, in his confession to the priests, that he had sustained the party of Peter Leonis in ignorance that it was against the will of God; that he repented of and confessed it. Almost all that he possessed he gave to the Church, or distributed to the poor, when dying. Tnat he celebrated Mass with abundant tears on the Saturday which preceded the Sunday on which he died, which event took place in the year 1136 A.D. He had been Bishop for more than 33 years. As he had wronged one of his chaplains by his liberalities, he gave to each of them at the end of his episcopate one mina ' as a benefaction. That man who, as a magnificent star, had by Divine permission, of Limoges, of Poitiers, of Perigueux, and of Saintes, Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting, and prays that they may be steadfast in adversity.

1. It is during peace that bravery is acquired, in the struggle that it is displayed, in the victory that it triumphs. The time has come, most Reverend and honoured Fathers, to show your courage, not to hide it, nor to let it rest inactive. The hostile sword, which seems to threaten the whole Church with death, hangs most of all over your necks; and it is you whom it threatens most eagerly and most closely, so that you are obliged by the daily attacks of which you are the objects, either to resist bravely or (which may God forbid!) disgracefully to retreat. The new Diotrephes, who loves to bear the first place among you, rejects you from his communion; he refuses to recognize with you him whom the whole Church receives as coming in the name of the Lord. Not him, I say, does he receive, but the man who comes in his own name. I am not surprised at this, for he himself, even in his old age, strives and pants unweariedly to attain a great name. I am not led astray by an uncertain or false rumour in forming this opinion of the man; I judge of him from his own words. In a letter which he lately sent to the Chancellor of Rome, does he not supplicate, in terms as humble as they are unworthy of him, to be entrusted with the charge and honourable title of Legate of the Holy See? Would that he had obtained it. Perhaps if his ambition had been gratified according to his prayers it would have been less hurtful than it is, being frustrated. Then, indeed, it would be hurtful to himself alone, or, at all events, to few; but now it breathes discord over the whole world. See what the love of vain glory does! The title of Legate is a heavy burden, especially for the shoulders of the old; who is ignorant of that? And yet it is a severe punishment to this extremely aged man to live without this title for the few days that remain to him.

2. But perhaps he will accuse me of rash judgment with respect to him; perhaps he will say that I venture to judge the secret feelings of his soul on a mere suspicion which nothing authorizes me to do. It is true I am very suspicious on this matter; but I would ask, what man would be so simple as to think otherwise than I have done in a case so clear? To refer briefly to an action that was unmistakable. He is one of the first, if not the first of all, to write to Pope Innocent; he applies for the title of Legate. He does not obtain it. He is indignant, he falls away from him; he passes over to the party of the other, of whom he boasts that he is the Legate. If he had not in the first place made suit for this title, or had not afterwards accepted it from the other, one might have been able to attribute his double dealing to some other motive than ambition; but, as things stand, he has no plausible excuse to make. Let him lay down this mere empty name of Legate, for it has no functions; and I, for my part, will lay aside, if I can, this opinion of him; if not, I will at least acknowledge my reluctant suspicion as being rash. But he will, I know, be with difficulty persuaded to do it. He is not a man to strip himself voluntarily of a title which has long rendered him great among his neighbours, and without which he would appear degraded. We see in him what Scripture calls the false shame which leads to sin (Ecc. iv. 25). Can there be, in fact, any worse thing, any greater offence than extreme pride in mere dust and ashes, so that it is reluctant, I do not say to be subjected to others, but not to rule over others?

3. Because of this he quitted the party of Innocent, whom he called his holy Father, and the Holy Catholic Church his mother, and attached himself to his schismatiarch, with whose vain glory he has much in common. They have made mutual alliance, and have conceived an evil design against the people of God: Scale is joined to scale, so that no air can come between them (Job xli. 16). The one gives to the other the name of Pope, and the other in return styles him his Legate; and so they flatter each other's vain glory. They console, support, and commend each other in turn; but each of them does this for his own sake, and not for that of the other, for they are men who love only themselves. With equal zeal they combine against the Lord and against His Christ; but their motives are not the same. Each one seeks to derive from the other some personal advantage, and (which is abominable) at the expense of Christ's heritage. Are they not attempting under your eyes to ruin His realm, if you will permit it? That Legate fabricates new Bishops among you for the party of his Pope, that he may not be alone; nor does he wait until the Sees are vacant by death, but by the aid of the secular power tyrannically intrudes men into the places of Bishops yet living, taking occasion from the ill-will and relentless hatred of secular princes towards the Bishops of their cities. He sets in secret snares with the rich, that he may slay the innocent. By such a door he enters into the sheepfold.

4. Do you suppose that this Legate busies himself with such activity for the sake of his Pope only, and without any personal interest? He has added, in order that he may boast himself the more, France and Burgundy to the ancient limits of his legation; and he may add still further, if he pleases, the Medes, the Persians, and the people of the Decapolis. Wherefore should he not arrogate to himself besides the empty name of jurisdiction over the Sarmatians, and, in fact, over every place that his foot has pressed? O) man no less without modesty than without sense; mindful neither of the fear of God nor of his own honour! He thinks that he is not found out, while he is the laughingstock and amusement of all his neighbours. And rightly so. For he uses the sanctuary as if it were a market; and like a merchant seeking his gain goes here and there to the sellers, seeking to obtain at the lowest price what he wants to buy: so he seeks on all sides an ecclesiastical dignity, and decides at length in favour of that Pope who has consented to make him his Legate. And so Rome could not have had a Pope, unless he had found one to make him Legate? Whence came this privilege to you in the Church of Christ? Who has given you this prerogative over Christ's heritage? Is the sanctuary of God become your patrimonial estate? As long as there was any hope of obtaining from the lord Innocent what you had the shameless impudence to demand of him, he was to you holy Father and Pope in your letters. Why, then, do you now accuse him as a schismatic? Was it the case that his holiness, and his legitimate tenure of the Papacy, vanished with your hopes? It was wonderful in how short a time bitter water and sweet proceeded from the same fount. Yesterday Innocent was catholic, holy, Supreme Pontiff; to-day he is schismatic, wicked, and a troubler of the peace; yesterday Innocent and Pope; to-day Gregory, simple Deacon of S. Angelo. It is from the same mouth, indeed, but from a double heart, that these contrary sentiments proceed. Deceitful thoughts are in the heart, and from the heart they have been spoken. But what can you think of the reserve or self-respect of the man whose double heart renders uncertain the voice of his conscience, and with first Yes and then No makes his tongue forked? He ill-understands how to provide, according to the saying of the Apostle, things honest both before God and before men (2 Cor. viii. 21), who being an unjust judge neither respects nor fears God or men.

5. It is quite certain that ambition, when it extends into impudence, defeats its own success; and the unscrupulous man, when he makes his object apparent, renders it unlikely to be attained. Ambition is the mother of hypocrisy; it needs obscurity and shadow, and is unable to bear the light. Ambition, the lowest placed of the vices, has always an eye towards advancement; but all its fear is to be perceived. Nor is that wonderful; for it may fail in obtaining its end, unless it escape observation; and the more it pursues glory the less it can be obtained, if it is suspected of the pursuit. What is more inglorious, especially for a Bishop, than to be known for a man greedy of titles and honours, when a Christian ought not to glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? The ambitious will be esteemed by others only as long as he shall walk in darkness; and the hypocrite will be able to seem righteous and holy to the eyes which see only the outward appearance just as long as his meddling with filthy lucre be kept concealed. But when by impudence, or some imprudence, he happens to show what is lurking in his mind, does not the unmeasured love of greatness which is shown to all eyes turn to his shame and confusion rather than to his glory, and so, in truth, verify those words of the Scripture: Whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things (Phil. iii. 19); and this: If I seek my own glory, my glory is nothing (S. John viii. 54); and that imprecation of the Prophet directed, as I believe, against hypocrites: Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth before it is plucked up (Ps. cxxviii. 6, VULG.). The sentiment of shame has not yet perished in men, so that naked and shameless ambition should be honoured even by them, especially when they meet with it in an old man and a priest, in whom that puerile vanity is the more unbecoming, as increased gravity and holiness are befitting to him; and if he is flattered to his face, he is turned into ridicule behind his back by all. There is an ambition more delicate and more enlightened, which proceeds at least with caution, if not with pure intention; if it succeeds in advancing its object, it takes good care to keep its measures secret; but if not, it still lies close, and does not break the reserve which it imposes upon itself. And such an ambition, if it does not fear God unto salvation, yet for innate modesty retains honourable feeling, because it stands in fear of men, and blushes at public disgrace.

6. But must not the ambition be headlong and the desire to dominate imperious which causes a man not to spare the repose of his old age nor the honour of his priesthood to obtain the precarious title of Legate, which he would not be certain of for more than a year, which makes him tear open again the side of the Saviour, whence issued forth once blood and water for the salvation of men, for joining them together in the unity of faith? But whosoever tries to divide those whom Christ has joined together for their salvation proves himself to be, not a Christian, but an Antichrist, and guilty of the Cross and death of Christ. What impatient, what unbridled desire! what unrestrained eagerness! what blind and shameful ambition! He is obliged to confess that (as I have said) he began by making a petition unworthy of him to the legitimate Pope; and, smarting at the refusal he received, he took refuge immediately with the schismatic, and accepted from his sacrilegious hand the longed-for dignity, thus cruelly and shamelessly piercing the side of the Lord of Glory. For he divides the Church, for which that Side was divided upon the Cross. But one day he shall see Him whom he has pierced, and the Lord shall pronounce judgments, who now endures injuries patiently. When the day shall come that He shall do justice to those who are oppressed, and interfere in equity on behalf of the meek of the earth, will He, think you, turn away His ear from His beloved spouse when she invokes His aid against those who have oppressed her? No! He cannot be deaf to her complaint: My neighbours and my friends approached and stood against me; and those who were beside me stood afar off. Those who sought my life used violence against me (Ps. xxxvii. 12, 13, VULG.). Why should He not recognize the bone of His bone, the flesh of His flesh, yea, rather, the spirit of His spirit? Is she not for Him that well-loved Spouse, whose beauty has drawn Him here below, whose form He has put on, whom with marvellous condescension He has embraced with tender love, so that they two should be one flesh, as hereafter they shall be one spirit? For although she had known Christ according to the flesh, yet then shall she know Him no more: because before her face shall be a spirit, Christ Jesus the Lord; and being closely united to Him, she shall be one spirit with Him; when death shall be swallowed up in victory; and that which is weak in the flesh shall overcome by the power of the Spirit; when the glorious Spouse of the Church shall have her in his sight in her glory, as His dove perfect and beautiful, not having a spot of sin, a wrinkle of corruption, or any such thing.

7. While I linger willingly upon these consoling thoughts I have become almost unmindful of my subject, so strong is my desire to redeem the time because the days arc evil. The thought of more happy days transports me, but my purpose calls me back, reminds me of the facts, and plunges me into sorrow. The enemy of the cross of Christ (I relate it even weeping) carries his audacity so far as to drive from their (Episcopal) seats the holy men who entirely refuse to bend the knee before the beast of the Apocalypse, whose mouth opens wide with impious blasphemies against God and against His sanctuary (Apoc. xiii. 6). He endeavours to raise altar against altar, and is not ashamed to confound good and evil. He endeavours to intrude abbots into the places of abbots, Bishops into the places of Bishops, to thrust out the Catholics, to advance the schismatics. Poor creatures, and to be pitied, who consent to accept such promotion from the hands of such a man. He traverses sea and land to make one Bishop; and when he has made him, he makes of him doubly the child of hell that he is himself. What do you suppose is the cause of such furious activity? It is because that precept announced by the angels to mortals, in which glory is given to God and peace to men, is to him displeasing; and while he and his party usurp the glory they trouble the peace. He alone merits glory who alone doeth wonders, as the Apostle says, to God alone be honour and glory (1 Tim. i. 13). As for man, he ought to think himself happy, he ought to regard himself as being mercifully favoured if it is permitted him to enjoy the peace of God and peace with God; but how can it be thus if men themselves wish to usurp the glory of God? Oh, foolish sons of Adam, who, while you despise peace and desire glory, lose them both! It is because of this that the God of vengeance has now moved the land and divided it: He has shewed His people heavy things. He lias given them a drink of deadly wine.

8. Whether we will or no, the truth of the Holy Ghost will necessarily one day be fulfilled, and that falling away foretold by the spirit of prophecy, as we read in the Scriptures (2 Thess. ii. 3), will take place; but woe to the man by whom it comes. It would be better for that man he had not been born. But who is that man except the man of sin, who, notwithstanding that a Catholic had been elected by Catholics to the holy place, and according to canonical rules, invaded it for himself, although he desired it not because it was holy, but because it was the highest place? He invaded it, I say, by the sword, by fire, by money, not by the merit of his life or by his virtues; he has attained to that in which he remains, but he remains only by the same means that he attained it. That election of which he boasts so much was nothing but the note of a faction, a mere pretence, the occasion and the screen of his evil plan; it is impudent and false to call it an election. If there is in the Church a principle authentic and incontestable, it is that after the first election there is no second. Suppose that there has been one, after which a second is made; yet it is not a second, it is simply null and void. But even although that which preceded was conducted with too little solemnity, and not sufficiently according to ordinary formalities, as the enemies of unity contend, yet ought a second election to have been resolved upon before the manner of the former had been discussed, and it had been quashed by a deliberate judgment? It is that which obliges me to say that the factious persons are those who have hastened to lay their hands rashly upon a rash usurper, notwithstanding the prohibition of the Apostle: Lay hands suddenly upon no man (1 Tim. v. 22). They have, without doubt, the greater fault; they are the true authors of the schism, and the chiefs of this great mischief which has been done to the Church.

9. But now they demand judgment, which they ought to have waited for before acting. When that proposition was made to them in fit time they rejected it; they only do this now in order to appear- to have the right on their side if you refuse it in your turn; and if you accept it they hope that during the process time may be gained by delays, and in the meantime something may happen in their favour. Or do they despair of their cause, and are they convinced that it can be made no worse than it is, whatever be the issue of the process? Whatever (they say) has been done hitherto, now we seek a hearing; we are prepared to submit to what may be decided. This is a trap. What else is left to you in your wicked undertaking, what other resource have you for seducing the simple, for arming the ill-disposed, and for hiding your own guilt? If you did not say this what could you say? But now God has already judged what man seeks too late to reopen; but He has judged by the evidence of the facts, and not by the wording of a decree. Is it possible that human rashness would dare to interpose an appeal from the judgment of God? What if God should accuse and cry by the prophet, men have taken away from me the right of judgment? No purpose can stand against the purpose of the Lord; His word runneth very quickly, and draws together the peoples and the kings into one mind, so that they serve and obey the lord Innocent as Pope. Who will appeal from this? It has been recognized and proclaimed by Walter of Ravenna, Hildegar of Tarragona, Norbert of Magdeburg, Conrad of Salzbourg, Archbishops; it has been accepted by Equipert of Munster, Hildebrand of Pistoja, Bernard of Pavia, Landulf of Asti, Hugo of Grenoble, and Bernard of Parma, Bishops. The singular merit of these prelates, their manifest sanctity, and their authority respected even by their enemies, have easily determined me, who hold a lower rank in merit as in office, to follow their leading whether it be right or wrong. I do not speak of the multitude of others, both Archbishops and Bishops of Tuscany, Campania, Lombardy, Germany, and Aquitaine, of France, also, and all the Spains, as well as of the whole Church of the East, whose names are in the Book of Life, but which the brevity of a letter cannot find space for.

10. All these with one accord, not induced by money, not led away by fallacious reasoning, not allured by considerations of worldly relationship, nor compelled by fear of the secular power, but submitting themselves to the will of God which they cannot doubt has been made plain, have frankly rejected Peter Leonis, and recognized Gregory for Pope, under the name of Innocent. Of the prelates of our province, not one, indeed, is mentioned by name in this letter; because I could not name them all, and the special mention of some of them would appear to be a kind of adulation. But I ought not to pass over those holy men, who, though dead to the world, live a better life in God; their life is hid with Christ in glory, is consecrated entirely to the knowledge of the wrill of God, and to the endeavour to please Him. Of these, then, the Camaldulian Religious, those of Vallombrosa, those of the Chartreuse, the Cluniacs, those of Marmoutiers, my own brethren in religion the Cistercians, those of S. Stephen of Caen, of Tiron, of Savigny, in one word, the unanimous consent of the brethren, as well secular clergy as monks, of strict life and approved conduct, following their Bishops as flocks follow their pastors, firmly adhere to Innocent, zealously defend him, humbly obey him, and recognize him faithfully as a true successor of the Apostles.

ii. What of the kings and princes of the earth? Do they not receive Innocent in the same disposition, with the peoples who are subject to them, and confess him to be Pope, and the Bishop of their souls? What man is there of good family or of distinguished rank who does not think the same thing? And yet those people still protest with quarrelsome importunity and importunate argument. They make their accusation against the whole world, and, notwithstanding their small number, endeavour to dictate to the whole of Christendom, and to oblige it to confirm by a second judgment an election which has been already judged and condemned; they began by improper precipitation, and now wish to reopen the whole question. But, after all, what means have they of assembling the chiefs of each order [secular and ecclesiastical], I do not say of the faithful simply, so as to submit the controversy to their judgment? Who would be mighty enough to persuade so many thousands of holy men to pull down again what they had before built up, and to lend themselves to a deception? Then where could a place be found safe and spacious enough for all? For this is a business which belongs to the whole Church, not the private cause of one person. You see, then, that you \_i.e., the opponents are demanding a thing which is impracticable, only to bring a false accusation against your Mother Church; or rather you are digging a pit for yourselves into which you shall be thrown; you are weaving a snare in which you shall be taken and held, nor shall you return into the bosom of your Mother. A pretext will never be wanting to him who wishes to break faith with his friend.

12. But let it be so. Suppose that God should change His mind (I speak after the manner of men), should recall His decree, should assemble a Council from the ends of the earth, should allow the matter which He has judged to be submitted for a second judgment, which is not the way in which God acts, whom, I ask, will they give to Him for judges? All have taken their side in this matter, and it will be very difficult to agree upon a judgment; so that so great an assemblage of men will have the weariness to assemble for disagreement rather than for peace. And, finally, I would be glad to know into whose hands that schismatic would consent to trust the city of Rome, which he desired so eagerly and for so long a time, which he gained with so much trouble and at so great a cost, which he possesses with such pride, and which he fears to lose writh so great shame, lest the whole world should be seen to have come together to no purpose, if when he loses his cause he does not at the same time lose Rome; otherwise why should he who has been despoiled enter upon the cause? Neither the civil law nor the Canons oblige him to do so. And this I say, not that I have any doubt of the justice of our cause, but because I distrust the cunning of our adversaries. God has already manifested His justice as clearly as the light and His judgment as the noon-day, although to him who is blind neither does the light appear, nor does the blaze of noon-day enlighten; to him light and darkness are the same.

13. The question is, then, of ascertaining whether of these two claimants is the rightful Pope. As for that which relates to them personally, that I may not seem either to flatter or to detract from either one or the other, I will say nothing except that which is spoken everywhere, and which, I suppose, everyone believes, namely, that the life and character of our Pope Innocent are above any attack even of his rival; while that of the other is not safe even from his friends. In the second place, if you compare the two elections, that of our candidate at once has the advantage over the other as being both purer in motive, more regular in form, and earlier in time. The last point is out of all doubt; the other two are proved by the merit and the dignity of the electors. You will find, if I do not mistake, that this election was made by the more discreet part of those to whom the election of the supreme Pontiff belongs. There were Cardinals, Bishops, Deacons, or Presbyters, and these in sufficient number, according to the decrees of the Fathers, to make a valid election. Then, as to the Consecration of the person elected, was it not performed by the Bishop of Ostia, to whom that function specially belongs? Since, then, both the person elected is maintained to be the more worthy and the election more discreetly conducted, and the formalities more regularly complied with in performing it; upon what pretext, or rather by what spirit of contention, do they try against right and justice and the voices of all good men to depose him, and to set another Pope over the reluctant and protesting Church?

14. You see, most reverend and illustrious Fathers, under what obligation you are to oppose with all your powers this attempt so malicious, so unworthy, and so rash. It is becoming to the whole Church, but most of all to you and yours, that zeal for the House of God should consume your souls. It is your duty, I say, and that of your flocks to watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The more boldly the adversary presses on, and the greater is the stress of battle, in that place is there surely the greater need for bravery and caution. How cruel and how cunning is the foe who has risen against you, you know, I am sure, by your own experience. Alas! what ravages has he not already committed in your neighbourhood, having recourse in turn to force and to cunning, the constant arms of his malignity! But shall his malice prevail over your wisdom? No doubt this is his hour, and the power of darkness; but the hour is his last, and his power soon passes away. Be not afraid, nor permit yourselves to be drawn away. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, is with you; it is His own cause. Trust in Him; He has overcome the world; He is faithful, and will not permit you to be tempted above that ye are able. Though the deluded man appears solidly established, without doubt you will soon see his fair show of prosperity overcast by general rejection; nor will the Lord leave the rod of sinners long over the lot of the righteous. But, in the meantime, it is committed to your vigilance to provide with the care and solicitude that becomes your office, that the good people of your dioceses should not stretch out their hands towards this wickedness.