Letters394 Letter CCCXCIV. To the Archbishop of Lyons.

On behalf of the Abbot of Aisnay near Lyons.

To the Archbishop of Lyons, Legate of the Apostolic See, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, health and earnest desire that he may be enriched with good works both before God and men.

I shall not see without profound grief that the high reputation which you have enjoyed, and the odour of sanctity which by your means has been shed over our Mother Church in whose garden you have flourished and bloomed, as a lily, should be forfeited and changed. As a cedar is exalted in Libanus, so are you now in the Church of God; amiable, praiseworthy and dear to all. We have already had great actions from you; but hitherto we have been in expectation of still greater ones. Now, however, I say to you: Hold fast what you have already gained; do not allow your fame to decay. Better is a good name, than much riches. How have you treated the Abbot of Aisnay?

It has taken you but an instant to judge him, to condemn him, to depose and deprive him at once of his title and office. You have acted far too hastily in the matter: the thing was done in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as it were: absolutely as it shall be at the Resurrection of the dead. Permit me to speak to you with freedom, for the fulness of love casteth out fear. What was the fault of that poor man? His praise is in the Church; and what wrong had he done?

I say what I know for a fact, that both from those who are dwelling in the Abbey and those who are without comes one only opinion; and that in praise of him. Whether he has been guilty of any fault is as yet unknown: for 1 I. e. Lyons: in which province Clairvaux was. See Epp. 172, 174 and note on the latter (E).

2 Aisnay was an ancient and famous Benedictine Abbey situated near Lyons, at the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone. Later on it became an Abbey of secular canons.

no inquiry according to the canons has been held. It seems to me that he ought to have been left undisturbed, or to have been deposed by a formal and regular judgment. What then! he has confessed no crime, he has been proved guilty by no one, nor convicted in either way, and yet you have condemned him?

But you reply to me: When his cause was in question, he allowed it to go by default. He was not able to produce those witnesses, which I had written to him to bring forward. Very good: according to you, those were against him who did come forward in his favour: it is as if it had been said to them: Either come forward against yourselves, or he will be deposed. Those I allow, he could not have: but he could have others, whose testimonies would have been not less trustworthy than those whom he could not have. But now let us look at the affair from another point of view. Granted that he is wrong: he has made default at the bearing of his cause, his plea has failed, he has no longer the right to call himself innocent. But do you not know that principle: ‘It is permitted to revive a faulty process by the remedy of an appeal?’ And if you were unwilling to take any notice of the appeal which he has lodged, at least you ought to have deferred further proceedings against him until the issue of his appeal to. another tribunal was known. It is unbecoming in the head of a diocese to let rash words and inconsiderate judgments come forth from his lips: hastiness, especially in a cause of such a nature that it cannot remain secret, but must be generally known, is unfitting for a prelate.

I tell you that in injuring that Abbot you have injured many people, who will not be indifferent to the persecution of which he is the object: and not to conceal anything from you, I have been earnestly requested by many persons, whose wishes are not to be disregarded, to write