Letters410 Letter CDX. To Gilduin, Abbot of S. Victor.

Bernard recommends Peter Lombard to him.

To the reverend lords and fathers, his very dear friends, G., by the grace of God, the venerable Abbot of S. Victor at Pans, and to the entire community of the same, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and the assurance of his humble prayers.

I am forced to ask much of others, since much is asked of me: nor am I able to refrain from putting my friends under contribution, as I am myself made to contribute by other friends. The Lord Bishop of Lucca, my father and 1 The Abbey of S. Victor extra-mnros (of Paris) was for Regular Canons of the order of S, Augustine. Gilduin was abbot of it from 1133 to 1155. Bernard recommends it to Abbot Jiuger in his letter 369. The Abbey possessed the cowl S. Bernard, as a proof of the attachment which he always elt towards it. This abbey was founded by Louis le Gros in 1113 and first organized by William de Champeaux, who was removed from it to be Bishop of Chalons. The Abbot of this house was nominated by the King. The Abbey became so flourishing that it had thirty other Abbeys, and more than eighty Priories, in dependance upon it. James de Vitry praises it thus in his History of the West C. 24; “This is a holy house, filled with Religious worthy in all respects to be called soldiers of the Lord: it is a refuge for the poor and a consolation for the unhappy, a place of retreat for sinners and a peaceful refuge of scholars.... There have adorned it since its foundation, like stars shining in the sky, or like the precious pearls of a rich coronet, many doctors of the University of Paris, learned and honourable men; at the head of whom is to be named the celebrated Hugh of S. Victor, the lute player (as it were) of the Lord and organ of the Holy