Letters247 Letter CCXLVII. 1146.) to the samk, for the archbishop of rhkims

Bernard is displeased at the severity shown towards the Archbishop of Rheims, in withdrawing from him tin-use of the pallium.

To his loving father and lord Ki/GEMi'S, by the grace of God Supreme Pontiff, his humble servant BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, sends humble greeting.

1. May God forgive you! What have you done? You have shamed the face of one of the most conscientious of men, and humiliated in the face of the Church one whose praise is in the Church. You have made all his adversaries to rejoice, but how many do you suppose you have grieved/ There is no measure to the sympathy that he receives, because his friends are numberless. A man beloved by God and men is suffering the punishment due to a great crime, though it has not been brought home to him, nor confessed. We hold, we feel, the zeal of Phinehas; the Israelite is thrust through, but not with the Midianitish woman. It is charged against him that he crowned the King, but he does not think that in so doing he has exceeded the tenor of his privileges. It is objected against him that he knowingly presumed to celebrate in a church lying under an interdict. He denies it. In good time that will be brought to the 1 I find that Louis the Younger was more than once crowned. The first time was during the lifetime of his father, when he received the crown from Innocent A.D. 1131, at Rheims. The second took place (Ordericus Vitalis says) at Bourges, A.D. 1138. He writes:—"In the year 1138 Louis King of France was crowned at Bourges on Christmas Day, and there was gathered together a large assembly of the nobles and of lesser men from all Gaul and Aquitaine, and from the surrounding countries. Thither assembled the metropolitans with their suffragans, thither came the consuls and other high personages to show their loyalty to the new king/' Ordericus speaks of him as a " new king " because, on the death of his father, he was crowned King of Aquitaine. Here we see him crowned again by Samson, Archbishop of Rheims, before setting out for Jerusalem, perhaps that he might receive the oath of loyalty in solemn assembly before he left his vassals. Horst thinks that the place where this last ceremony took place was Chartres, where the question of the expedition to Jerusalem was discussed. But from the tenor of this Letter it is evident that this coronation took place at Bourges. The same thing is evident from the Letters of Eugenius, from which we see that Eugenius was under the impression that the church of Bourges, in which Samson had performed the ceremony, had been placed under an interdict. From this Letter, and from another of Ivo's to be quoted presently, it further appears that the Archbishop of Rheims contended that it was his prerogative to crown the king whenever the ceremony took place. This was denied by Peter of Bourges, and by Ivo of Chartres before him. But in this Letter S. Bernard does not deprive the Archbishop of Rheims of this prerogative, nay, he rather seems to admit it. Silvester II. mentions it in a bull sent to Arnulf, Archbishop of Rheims, whom he had suspended for a breach of good faith, and whom he restored A.D. 999 to his former dignity and all his rights. He says:—" We grant to you by the provisions of this edict permission to resume the ring and staff, and to discharge the office of Archbishop, and to enjoy after the usual manner all the insignia which belong to the metropolis of the holy Church of Rheims, to use the pall at the wonted solemnities, at the benediction of kings, and of your suffragan Bishops." And certainly it was most suitable, since the " most Christian Kings " had received the dignity of the royal priesthood from the blessed Remigius, Archbishop of Rheims, and also the pledge of their heavenly crown through their baptism and profession of the Christian religion, that they should give to his successors the right of consecrattest, and he be cleared. But be it so, let us suppose that all that his adversary has been allowed, or has cared, to say against him in his absence is true. Is it right that one whose other actions have been so praiseworthy should for this single excess be so hardly dealt with, so severely punished? To have exceeded this once only, might have been thought even a virtue, if the judgment on his action had proceeded from you and not from his enemies. What ought he to have done in such difficult circumstances? The day had been fixed, the court was solemnly assembled, the young King was there, and, above all, the business for which they had assembled was God's business, viz., the expedition to Jerusalem. All these things plainly forbade that the solemn crowning of the King should be put off, or that it should be deprived of the wonted masses, and of its due honour. Neither was it expedient for the Archbishop of Bourges to prevent this honour being shown to the King.

2. And since this is how the case stands, I think that it is not one without an opportunity for mercy, since great necessity can excuse any appearance of contumacy. Have you power to strike only, and not to heal? You know who said, will wound and I will heal (Deut. xxxii. 39). Far be it from you not to use the words of Him Whose place you hold, especially His words of fatherly love. Therefore, for this time only let the arrow of Jonathan speed quickly back, and if need be let it be shot at me instead. I should think it more tolerable, I confess, for me to be forbidden to celebrate mass than for the Archbishop to be deprived of his pall. There is also another reason of no small weight which stands in the way of your godly severity here, and that is, that it may give great occasion of offence and irritation to your son, King Louis, since he will seem the whole cause of all this trouble; and this plainly is unadvisable just now, for the good work which under your exhortation he has set about zealously and earnestly may fail of a worthy ending if he does it while angry and offended. As to the rest, you have ordered, I have obeyed; and your authority has caused a ready obedience to be paid to the injunctions. I have declared and spoken, they are more than I can number. Cities and castles are made empty; and now they find with difficulty one man that seven women can lay hold of, so many widows are there everywhere, and their husbands still living.