Letters352 Letter CCCLII. Privilege or grant made by pope innocent II. To saint Bernard.- (A.D. 1131)

Innocent concedes very full privileges to Bernard and to the Cistercian Order on account of their great services to the Apostolic See.

Innocent, Bishop, and servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, and to their successors regularly appointed for ever, etc.

To you, Abbot Bernard, my beloved son in the Lord, to your firm and indefatigable constancy, to the fervour of your piety, and the discretion which you displayed in defending the cause of S. Peter, and of the holy Roman Church your mother, when the schism of Peter Leonis was beginning; and to the zeal with which you opposed yourself as an impregnable bulwark before the house of God, and laboured to incline the minds of Kings and Princes,* and of other persons both ecclesiastical and lay, by pressing arguments, made strong by reason, to the unity of the Catholic Church, and the obedience of S. Peter, and of us; in great measure are due the happy condition in which the Church of God, and ourselves, are found.

Wherefore, in order to give assent to your just wishes, we have fortified with the protection of the apostolical See the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, over which, in the providence of God, you preside, with all the houses depending upon it. We ordain that all the possessions or goods whatsoever which it actually possesses justly and canonically at the present time, or in the future by the help of God shall possess, whether by the grant of Popes, or by the liberality of Kings or Princes, by the offerings of the faithful, or by any other just manner, shall remain firm and unimpaired to you and your successors. We forbid any Archbishop or Bishop to cite either you, or your successors, or any Abbot of the Cistercian Order, to any Council or Synod except for causes that concern the faith. And as the monastery of Citeaux is the source and origin of this religious Order, let it deservedly enjoy this prerogative by our grant; that, whenever it shall be deprived of its own pastor, it may freely choose for itself any Abbot whatever, or monk, out of all the Abbeys of your Order, to preside over it, and may obtain the person chosen without any opposition. We grant to the other Abbeys of your Order which have one or more Abbeys dependent upon, or founded by them, the free power at the death of their own Abbot of choosing whomsoever they shall prefer from all the Abbeys under their obedience, or any monk whatever from all the Cistercian congregations. But those Abbeys which have no dependent houses may freely choose and have as their Abbot any monk out of all the congregations of the before-named Order. Further, let no Archbishop, Bishop, or Abbot presume to receive, or to retain, if received, any of your lay brothers (converses) who are not monks, but who shall have made profession in any of your Houses, without your free consent. We ordain that no one presume to demand or receive of you tithes, either on the lands which you and the brothers of your whole congregation cultivate with your own hands or at your own cost, or of the animals upon them. Let no one, therefore, etc-.

The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon those who preserve to the same place the things which belong to it; let them receive here below the recompense of that good action, and let them rind before the tribunal of the Judge the rewards of eternal peace. Amen.

1. [NNQCENT, Bishop of the Catholic Church.

1. MATTHEW, Bishop of Albano.

1. ROMANUS, Cardinal Deacon of S. Mary in Porticu.

1. JOHN, Cardinal Presbyter of S. Chrysogonus.

1. GREGORY, Cardinal Deacon of SS. Sergius and Bacchus.

Given at Lyons by the hand of Haimeric Cardinal Deacon and Chancellor of the holy Roman Church, the seventeenth February, indiction x., in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1131, in the third year of the Pontificate of Pope Innocent II.