Letters402 Letter CDII

hension; for what you feared is not the case. I have looked carefully into the report, as you advised, and I find that the mischief was in the mouth of the person who told this to you. You may be sure that one of two alternatives is the fact. the man spoke to you out of suspicion, or else from mere malignity. Doubtless the fraud of which he has been guilty, shall recoil upon his own head, this iniquity fall upon his own path. For he is the culprit in this, which he falsely imputes to another.

To Baldwin, 1 Bishop of Noyon.

Bernard recommends a young man to him pleasantly.

To Baldwin, Lord Bishop of Noyon, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and a recompense even greater than his deserts.

I send you a young man, the bearer of this letter, to eat of your bread, that I may make proof, by seeing whether you permit this reluctantly or no, of your avarice or liberality. Do not mourn over it, do not weep: he has but a little stomach, he will not eat much. Yet I (shall) thank you; if he returns from you fatter in body and more instructed in mind as well. Let the manner of speech 1 About his election there is a letter of the Chapter of Noyon among those of Abbot Suger (No. 44); and in the same collection are found many of the same Baldwin, then Bishop, about the Church of Compiegne; they are No. 157, 158 and 162. From Ep. 44 it appears that Baldwin was Abbot of Chatillon before being Bishop. It was to him that Bernard wrote Letters 279 and 401; and he is himself the writer of Letter 426.

2 Maneries: Low Latin for Modus, used here in the sense of manner, or mannerism. Mod. Fr. maniere. John of Salisbury uses the word (Metalog. C. 17) and other authors, but it is rare. See Du Cange, Sub voce (E.)