Letters349 Letter CCCXLIX. 1141.) To THE SAME. He recommends a friend to the Pontiff.

To his very dear father and lord, INNOCENT, by the grace of God supreme Pontiff, Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, sends his humble duty.

I am unwilling to enjoy alone the favour I have found in your eyes. I desire to share it with my friends. For I do not fear that there will not be enough both for me and for them. For it is so great that I am able to make a crowd of friends the sharers of it without fearing to tind it empty when shall come myself. What, therefore, I have freely received I will freely bestow, and your liberality makes me liberal with the gifts which you have given-me. I recommend, then, to you the bearer of this letter, an estimable person. He is a friend, my lord, of the poor of Christ, and a servant of your servants. I entreat, my lord, that it he has any business with you, you will listen to him favourably, with your accustomed kindness, for my sake, or rather for his own, since he is so good a man as to deserve that he should obtain his petition because of his own merit.