Letters279 Letter CCLXXIX. To COUNT HENRY. He entreats the Count to enforce restitution for an injury. (A.D. 1152)
Letter CCLXXIX. To COUNT HENRY. He entreats the Count to enforce restitution for an injury. (A.D. 1152)
The Abbot of Chatillon, a man of piety, when setting out for Rome, committed all his goods to the custody of me under God. And lo! the servants of Simon de Belfort have stolen his pigs. I would rather that they had taken mine. I require them at your hands. The Prince of the Kings of the earth has made you a prince on the earth, in order that under Him, and for Him, you may cherish the good, restrain the evil, defend the poor, help them to right that suffer wrong. If you do these things you do the work of a prince, and my hope is that God will extend and establish your power. If you do them not, it is to be feared that He will take from you the honour and power which you seem to have.
Abbas de Castellione, vir religiosus, Romam proficiscens, in Dei et nostri custodia sua omnia dereliquit: et ecce ministeriales Simonis, homines de Belfort, abstulerunt porcos eorum. Maluissem, dico vobis, ut nostros proprios rapuissent. A vobis requirimus illos. Ad hoc te constituit principem super terram Princeps regum terrae, ut sub eo et pro eo bonos foveas, malos coerceas, pauperes defendas, facias judicium injuriam patientibus. Si haec facis, opus principis facis: et spes est ut tuum Deus dilatare et roborare debeat principatum. Si non, timendum est tibi, ne hoc ipsum quod videris habere honoris et potestatis, auferatur (quod absit!) a te.