Letters300 Letter CCC. To the Countess of Blois.-

He consoles the Countess for the excesses of her son, i In the first Lyons edition of the Letters of S. Bernard, in 1494- reads Comiti Angelterto (perhaps the same who is spoken of in Letter 123) pro jratritus de Bruxia. In another edition, 1530, Comiti Engelterto pro fratribus de Bruxia. In another at Lyons in 1520, and in all following, except one, it stands as given in the text. The authors of our age prefer this subscription, asserting that William, surnamedTaillefer, Count of Angouleme. granted to the Cistercians in 1143 a spot situated in the territory of Boisse, where was situated the Benedictine Abbey of S. Amand, founded by Count Arnald in the tenth century. But these last having protested against the "grant made to the Cistercians, Bernard, for the sake of peace, gave it up in 1153; but on the condition, says Picard, that the monks of S. Amand should repay sixty silver marks to those of Clairvaux for the buildings which they had raised and other things acquired by them in that place.

'-' Matilda of Flanders, the wife of Theobald the Great, Count of Champagne. Bernard seems to have comforted the Countess not with a vain hope, but rather which he imputes to his age, and encourages her to hope for a better future for him; he advises her to treat him with kindness and indulgence, rather than with harshness.

If your son has ever fallen into any unsuitable conduct towards you I greatly regret it; and deplore the excess of the son as well as the injury to the mother; but after all his conduct is excusable in a young man. For the faults of youth find both their cause and their excuse in the heedlessness of that age. Do you not know that the thoughts and imaginations of man's heart are given to evil from his youth? (Gen. viii. 21). Console yourself in the hope that there will be a change in him for the better by the merits and alms of his father.

Because of this you must be more and more earnest in your prayers and vows to God for him; for although he may not show all the filial affection and respect at all times that he should, yet a mother ought never to forget her motherly affection, nor, indeed, is she able to do so. Can a woman forget the son of her womb? And if she, He says, should forget, yet I will not forget thee (Isaiah xlix. 15). Let us entreat and lament before God; as for me, I have good hope that He will in His mercy cause a young man of such excellent qualities to endeavour to imitate his fathers noble character. Treat with him, then, in a spirit of gentleness and with affectionate intentions: because he will thus be better induced to good actions than if he is exasperated with reproaches and reprimands. In this way I feel sure that both your heart and mine will equally be gladdened in with a prophecy. For I find that she bore to Theobald four sons; Henry, Count of Blois, who succeeded his father in 1151; Theobald, Dapifer, successively of Louis the Younger and Philip Augustus, in which charge he succeeded Ralph, Count of Vermandois; Stephen, afterwards a monk of the Chartreuse; and, finally, William, who is mentioned in Letter 271, for the promotion of whom to Church dignities while yet a boy Bernard refuses to make interest. Bernard seems in this Letter to speak of Henry, the first of these, who on his return from Syria, inflated with his succession to his father's power, allowed himself to fall into some excesses, easily to be understood at his age. Letter 279 is to him.

a short time by the happy change which will take place in him. You will not doubt that I desire as fervently as you to see him return to a better mind. Would that I may find him always towards everyone such as I have always found him towards myself; for I do not think that he has ever refused to yield to any wish of mine; may the Lord recompense it to him! But you may believe that, as you have frequently requested, I have remonstrated with him, and I will continue to do so whenever the occasion shall offer.