Letters446 Letter CDXLVI. To Amadeus, Abbot of Hautecombe.

He begs him to send messengers to Montpellier to go on board the ships of the King of Sicily and convey his excuses for not having sent brethren to Sicily.

To his dear brother in the Lord, Amadeus, Abbot of Hautecombe, Brother Bernard called Abbot of Clairvaux: Health and brotherly love.

I request that you would send your father or some other intelligent and discreet messenger on my behalf to Montpellier, so as to be there on the Octave of the Assumption 2 B.M., for on that day the ambassadors of the King of Sicily ought to be there, with a fleet to convey the daughter of Count Theobald to the son of their lord. If then they have brought ships, as they perhaps will have, for the conveyance of our brethren, and ask for the [completely organized Abbey which I was to send, let your messenger present the excuse thus: 4 ‘That the brethren were ready and the Abbey organized: but that the lord Alfanus the ambassador of the King of Sicily, said that the King required only two brethren, who were to be sent in advance to view the proposed site; but that 1 Patrem; but should we not read priorem (prior)? (E.)

2 Aug. 15; so that the date named would be Aug. 22 (E.)

3 Roger, the first King of Sicily; to whom Letters 207, 208, 209.

4 Bernard afterwards sent brethren to found an Abbey in Sicily, over whom he set “Magister Bruno, formerly his own companion for many days, and at a later time the father of many souls rejoicing in Christ.” See Ep. 209 which is said to have been written in that or the preceding year.

5? Alfonso.

Letter CDXLVII.

when the King shall signify his will to me, the whole Abbey shall forthwith be sent: for it is dangerous to religion and to the Order, as your Wisdom knows, for brethren to be lingering in a strange land, without discipline, and without the oversight of their Abbot or other brethren.'