Letters342 Letter CCCXLII. To JOSCELYN, BISHOP OF Soissoxs (A.D. 1140)
Letter CCCXLII. To JOSCELYN, BISHOP OF Soissoxs (A.D. 1140)
Bernard begs him to appease the King, who was displeased with the ArcJibishop of Bordeaux.
To the venerable lord and very dear father, JOSCELYN, by the grace of God Bishop of Soissons, BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting, and desires that he may find grace with the Lord.
1. It is an injury to the Realm and the nobles of it if the plans of the King are proclaimed of his own hasty motion, and made public without mature consideration. But it pleases me much to see that the King trusts you, and confides in you; for I know that you are zealous for the Sovereign and the realm with a godly zeal, and I know also that you have the qualities of a good adviser for him. Both order and reason require, in fact, that in a Royal counsellor should be united in a similar degree devotedness and prudence. Everything depends upon this for him; with these two qualities he cannot fail to be a sound adviser and to direct with wisdom the enterprises of the King. But if either his devotedness makes default in prudence, or his prudence in devotedness, when he performs his duty as counsellor, then woe to the land whose King shall be a child! May my soul never come into the counsel of those who, either though they love me, are not prudent; or being prudent, love me not. For so Adam, that unhappy one, fell from his rights of immortality, for having yielded to the counsel of the sinful; of Eve who, though she loved him, was not prudent; and of the serpent, who was prudent, but loved him not.
2. Why is it that my lord the King endeavours to draw the Archbishop of Bordeaux into a dispute without any reason? Is that done by your advice? May God keep you from doing such a thing, and me from thinking it possible. For what harm has that man done? Is it that he consecrated, according as he was free to do, by the Canons, a Bishop elected by those of Poictiers with a unanimous voice, without opposition? or that he did not snatch from the poor and from the Churches of Poictiers, from the mouths of the hungry, so to speak, the money which a dying man had left them? Lo, their blood is required at his hand. If it is a fault to have given a pastor to wandering sheep, to have refrained from despoiling the widow and the orphan, to have maintained intact the privileges of the Apostolic See, then he cannot be accused. O, ill-judged judgment, in which righteousness is taken for wrong and innocence is counted as guilt! Look to yourselves, you who are Bishops.
Your interests are in question when your neighbour's wall takes fire (Horace, Epist. i. 18, 84).
3. However this may be, since you, my lord, approach the King more nearly than others, and you count for much in the transaction of his business, it is your duty to use all your influence with the King on behalf of your brethren, so that his anger should not be altogether inflamed. I declare to you that you have to do with a resolute man, powerful in speech and action, who will not readily be driven from his right. He enjoys great influence in that district. If there should be any dispute, many would side with him in his grievances. See, then, to it, that no one throws oil on the fire. Let the flame be extinguished before it has had time to light up a conflagration:
For it is too late to use a remedy when by long delays the disease has grown strong (Ovid, de Remed. Amor, 91, 92).
Venerabili domino et dilectissimo patri JOSLENO, Dei gratia Suessionensi episcopo, BERNARDUS Clarae-Vallensis abbas, invenire gratiam apud Dominum.
1. Injuria regni est et principum ejus, si negotia regis de sinu ipsius cum impetu procedant ad publicum, et non tam circumspecto quam praecipiti explicentur consilio. Placet mihi, et multum placet quoniam rex credit vobis, et confidit in vobis. Scio enim quia regem et honorem regni bona aemulatione aemulamini, et scio nihilominus spiritum consilii esse vobiscum. Ita oportet: hic ordo, haec ratio, hic modus videndus est in viro consilii, ut diligat, et sapiens sit. In ore duorum istorum, id est dilectionis et sapientiae, stabit omne verbum consilii. Haec duo, si in unum conveniant, poterit eructare verbum bonum, et discere opera facienda regi. Caeterum, si vel dilectio prudentiam, vel prudentia dilectionem solam in administratione consilii deseruerit, vae terrae, cujus rex puer erit! In consilium eorum non veniat anima mea, qui vel diligentes me, prudentes non sunt, vel prudentes, me non diligunt. Sic enim cecidit miser ille Adam de gradibus aeternitatis, quando abiit in consilio impiorum, Evae diligentis, sed non prudentis; serpentis prudentis, sed minime diligentis.
2. Quid est quod dominus meus rex archiepiscopum Burdegalensem attrahere nititur in causam sine causa? Vestrone id agitur consilio? Absit a vobis istud consilium! absit a me ista suspicio! Quid tandem mali fecit homo ille? Quod electam pari Pictaviensium pace, et voto, et voce, personam canonica libertate consecravit! quod pecuniam Pictaviensium, quam moriens dispersit, dedit pauperibus et ecclesiis, de faucibus esurientium, de sinu Ecclesiae non extraxit! En sanguis iste de manu ejus exquiritur. Si culpa est quod ovibus errantibus assignavit pastorem, quod pupillum et viduam non spoliavit, quod privilegia apostolicae Sedis illibata conservavit, non potest excusari. O consilium sine consilio, in quo justitia pro scelere, et innocentia pro crimine reputatur! Attendite vobis, episcopi: vestra enim res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
3. Vobis tamen, domine, quoniam et lateri regis arctius adhaeretis, et ex nutu vestro ipsius pendent negotia; vobis incumbit pro consortibus vestris id agere cum rege, ut non accendat omnem iram suam. Dico vobis, homo ille imperterritus est, homo potens in opere et sermone: vix poterit avelli a suo jure. Magnum enim locum obtinet in terra illa. Si res turbata fuerit, multi permanebunt cum eo in tentationibus ejus. Videte ergo, ne quis oleum flammae adjiciat. Exstinguatur ignis, antequam convalescat incendium: Sero (enim) medicina paratur, Cum mala per longas convaluere moras..