Letters332 Letter CCCXXXII (A.D. 1140)

To CARDINAL G... Also against Peter Abaelard. To the venerable lord and most dear father G..., Cardinal of the holy Roman Church, BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, desires the spirit of counsel and might.

I cannot hold my peace respecting the injuries done to Christ, the difficulties and troubles of the Church, the misery and complaints of the poor. We are fallen upon perilous times. We have doctors prone to flattery, and scholars who close their ears to the truth and turn aside unto fables. We have in France Peter Abaelard, a monk, who lives without rule; a prelate, who has no spiritual charge; an abbot without an abbey, who disputes with boys and converses with women. In his books he provides for his followers secret waters and bread eaten in secret, while in his oral discourses he leads them to profane novelties of phrase and of meaning. He approaches to the thick darkness in which God is, not alone, as did Moses, but with the numerous crowd of his disciples. Along the streets and in the open spaces people dispute about the Catholic Faith, about the childbearing of the Virgin, about the Sacrament of the Altar, about the incomprehensible mystery of the holy Trinity. We have ceased to hear the roaring of Peter Leonis only to hear the hissing of Peter Draconis. But thou, O Lord Jesu, shalt bring down the high looks of the proud, Thou shalt tread under foot both lion and dragon. The one did harm but as long as he lived, and when his life ended, so did his mischief, but the other is making provision for preserving his poison to the harm of generations yet to come. He has put upon record with pen and ink his poisonous novelties; I have procured his books, and send them to you that you may judge of the author from his works. You will see that this theologian distinguishes with Arias grades and inequalities in the Trinity, that with Pelagius he prefers free will to grace, that with Nestorius he divides Christ in. excluding His Humanity from the Trinity. These are but a few things out of many. Will there be no one among you who laments this attack upon Christ, who loves righteousness and hates iniquity? If the mouth that speaks perverse things be not stopped, let Him see to it and judge, who alone considers our distress and trouble.