Letters417 Letter CDXVII. To the Abbot of Saint Tron.

He requests that a certain Brother Dodo may be kindly received.

letter cdxviii.

To his dear brother and co-abbot, G., of Samt Tron, Brother Bernard of Clairvaux, wishes health in the Lord.

This is my opinion, or rather my judgment about the question in which Brother Dodo has come to seek my humble understanding. Since he has alleged no sufficient cause why he wishes to desert his place and his Order, there appears to me no reason why he should be permitted to do it. His scruple rests principally upon a vow which he says he has previously taken, but which seems to have been only a somewhat hasty word, followed by no consequent action. Such a vow cannot possibly take precedence of another which though taken later, was deliberate, and not left as a mere word, but rendered farther binding by making profession and taking the habit; especially when the former seems to have been neither stricter or more severe than the latter. Wherefore I think that you, who have to render account for his soul to the Lord, cannot safely give him the licence which he calls for; since it is written: The Lord shall count among the evil doers those who consent to their iniquity (Ps. cxxv. 5. Vulg.)

Receive him kindly as a son, and watch over him carefully as one committed to your charge; you will find him, if I do not mistake, willing to follow your counsels, and to submit himself to whatever you shall direct.