Letters447 Letter CDXLVII. To a person unknown.

He recommends to him the Abbot of Farfa, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.

I recommend to you a man noble, both by birth and character, a Cardinal of the Apostolic See, that you may receive him in an honourable and friendly manner. He has come down from the side of the Pope to the court of the King and at his summons, and is entrusted with secret business concerning both state and church. Receive him honourably, as a man of good will, and in him do honour equally to two very noble Princes of the world, namely him from whom he has come and him whom he has come to meet; the Pope and the Emperor. There is something bold in so humble a person as I daring to recommend to' you so great a man, but the very humility of your petitioner excludes shame in this matter, and if I have acted foolishly, yet humility itself has been my motive.

1 I supposed at first that this was Gerard a Cardinal deacon created by Innocent II., who became afterwards a monk at Clairvaux, and lies buried in the cloister there. But, since he had not the dignity of Abbot, it seems better to suppose that it was Adinulf, Abbot of S. Maria at Farfa, a Benedictine, created a Cardinal presbyter in 1130 by Innocent II.

Letter CDXLVIII.