Letters228 Letter CCXXVIII. To PETER, ABBOT OF CLUNY. Bernard complains that he did not reply to him. (A.D. 1143)

To the Reverend father and lord PETER, by the grace of God Abbot of the Cluniacs, BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, sends his humble greetings.

1. I should wish to think that you are pleased to joke in your letter; if such is the fact, and if I ought not to see anything unkind in what you say, then I allow that you are treating me well and like a friend. Do not wonder at this. For your sudden and unexpected condescension makes me doubtful about this. For it is not long ago, when writing to you, I saluted your Greatness with due reverence, and you answered me not a word. Not long before that I again wrote to you from Rome, and not even then did I get a single word in reply. Do you now wonder that when you lately returned from Spain I did not presume again to trouble you with my chatter? For if it is a fault not to have written for some cause or other, to have had no mind to write, nay, more, to have despised writing, you will surely not be altogether without blame. You see what I might urge with justice (since you require it of me); but I prefer to go and meet goodwill when returning than to delay its return while I try needlessly to excuse myself or to accuse another. I have merely said this so that I might not keep anything in my mind without giving it utterance, for this true friendship forbids For the future, let all suspicion be now removed, for charity believeth all things (1 Cor. xiii. 7). I rejoice that you have been stirred to a recollection of our former friendship, and to recall the friend that you had wronged. Now that I am recalled I gladly return. I am happy to be recalled. Henceforward I remember no wrongs. Here am I, now as then,.

the devoted servant of your Holiness. I give thanks that inclines are fallen to me in a pleasant place, inasmuch as I am again admitted to your intimacy, as you kindly write that I am. If by any chance I had grown lukewarm, as you complain, no doubt I should quickly become hot again when nourished by the warmth of your charity.

2. And now I must say that what you have been pleased to write I have received with outstretched hands. I have read it eagerly; I read it again with pleasure, and the oftener read it the more pleasure it gives me. I must say that I like your pleasantry. For it is at once agreeable from its gaiety, and serious from its gravity. I do not know how it is that you manage to mingle grave and gay in such a way that your pleasantry does not savour of lightness, and, while you preserve your dignity, the pleasantness of your mirth is not lessened. Further, you so preserve your dignity that the saying of holy Job can be applied to you: If I laughed on them they believed it not (Job xxix. 24). Well, you see that I have replied, and I think that now I may rightly demand more than you promised. It is right that you should know how things are here. I have determined not to leave the monastery again except for the annual meeting of Abbots at Citeaux. Here, supported by your prayers and good offices, I will wait for the few remaining days of my warfare, till my change comes. May God be gracious to me, and not withdraw from me your prayers or His mercy. I am broken in strength, and I have a valid excuse for not travelling about as I used to do. I will sit still and be silent, to see if perchance I may experience what from the fulness of his sweetness the holy Prophet says, It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord (Lam. iii. 26). And, that you may not seem the only one to joke, I suppose that you will not again venture to chide me for my silence, and, after your manner, to call that sloth, which I think the Prophet Isaiah more fittingly and more properly calls the cultivation of righteousness (Isaiah xxxii. 17), about which you read in his Prophecy, where he says from the Lord: In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength (Isaiah xxx. 15). Commend me to the prayers of your sacred Convent of Cluny; salute it first from me, the servant of all, if you think fit.