Letters426 Letter CDXXVI. To the Bishop of Troyes.

He disapproves that he has bestowed the office of Archdeacon upon a very young man.

To the venerable father H., by the grace of God Bishop LETTER CDXXVII.

of Troyes, 1 Brother Bernard, health, and his respectful duty.

The courtesy of your Highness is the cause that emboldens me when needful, to write to you with what is undoubtedly presumption about your affairs. I undertook to make request to you on behalf of your excellent son G., or rather to give a piece of advice in your own interest. I wonder then that you, whose high character I have warm respect for, should, for what reason or at whose opinion that it was advisable, I cannot conjecture, have thus acted respecting the Archdeaconry, of which G., whom I mentioned, is so well able to discharge the duties, as to prefer to bestow it upon a mere boy, who is not able to discharge the duties himself; 2 so wrongly and in defiance of your duty, as it seems to me.

For if you have built up anything of good, you have again (which may God avert!) destroyed it. But sufficient has been said to a man of understanding. If you fear men, the Gospel teaches you whom you ought to fear still more. If you wish to please men, yet it is better to be the servant of God: if you owe anything to Caesar, to God you owe still more.