Letters482 Letter CDLXXXII. To David, King of Scotland.

To the Lord David, the most illustrious King of Scot-land, whom he embraces in the bowels of Christ, B(ernard), called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and eternal life.

Long since, O most illustrious sovereign, have been drawn by your high reputation to regard you with affection and to desire to see you face to face. 1 desire it, I repeat; and I know that it is written: The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor: Thine ear (0 Lord) hath heard the preparation of their heart (Ps. x. 17)- Fortified with this confidence then, I trust in the Lord that I shall some time behold you even in the body, and even now I view you in mind and spirit with satisfaction, and often recall the memory with sweetness and joy. Our brethren who are at Rievaulx had felt the bowels of your first kindness; and to them you opened the treasure of your goodwill, you have cherished them with the anointing of your mercy and pity, and the palace of the Heavenly King was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. I am not ungrateful for these kindnesses, which are as welcome to me as if they had been bestowed upon me in my own person. But there are still others of our brethren who have lately become neighbours of yours. I think you are not ignorant of the manner in which (some of the monks) of S. Mary’s Abbey at York, where they had lived too carelessly, received an inspiration from on high and went forth into a solitary place: how they endured persecutions and injuries inflicted on them both by guile and by open force; how when they were rich, and abounded in the things of this world, they became poor Religious for the love of Christ, true seekers after the apostolic life and holiness. The world would love them, according to the saying of the Lord, if they were of the world. But now, because they are not of the world, it persecutes them as strangers and aliens. And they indeed, by the help of God, bear patiently whatever the world attempts against them. But we and whosoever fears God, ought to assist the servants of God in their tribulation. To you then, most compassionate King, I commend these servants of Christ of whom speak: I supplicate you on their behalf, that you would afford to them some solace in their poverty: and I hope that you will receive for your reward an everlasting Kingdom from Christ the King of Kings, in the day of the recompense of the righteous. Amen.